•S - 



oo 1 



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A> V * . ^ A*' < 



OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE 

CLIMATE 

IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF AMERICA 5 

COMPARED WITH THE 

CLIMATE IN CORRESPONDING PARTS OF THE 
OTHER CONTINENT. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
REMARKS ON THE DIFFERENT 

COMPLEXIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE; 

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 

ABORIGINES OF AMERICA 

BEING 

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE 
TO THE 

HISTORY OF NORTH-CAROLINA 



BY 

HUGH WILLIAMSON, M.D. LL.D. 

Member of the Holland Society of Sciences, of the Society of Arts and Science; 
of Utrecht, of the American Philosophical Society, &c. 



NE W-Y 0 R K: 
Printed and sold by T. k J. Swords. 
No. 160 Pearl-street. 



1811. 



I 



district of New-York, us. 

BE it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of June, in the thirty . 
fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, 
Thomas and James Swords, of the said district, have deposited in this 
office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in 
the words following, viz. " Observations on the Climate in different Parts 
of America, compared with the Climate in corresponding Parts of the 
other Continent. To which are added, Remarks on the different Com- 
plexions of the Human Race; with some Account of tbe Aborigines of 
America. Being an Introductory Discourse to the History of North- 
Carolina. By Hugh Williamson, M. D. LL. D. Member of the Holland 
Society of Sciences, of the Society of Arts and Sciences of Utrecht, of 
the American Philosophical Society, &c." In conformity to the Act of 
the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for "the Encourage- 
ment of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to 
the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Time therein 
mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, " An Act, supplementary to 
an Act, entitled, ' An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by secur- 
ing the Copies of Maps, "Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprie- 
tors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned, and extending 
the Benefits thereof to tbe Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching 
Historical and Other Prints." 

CHARLES CLINTON, 
Clerk of the District of New-York. 



PREFACE. 



It can hardly appear strange that a citizen of the 
United States should inquire, with some degree of 
attention, into the foundation of certain opinions 
which have been advanced by writers in Europe, 
unfavourable to the climate and animal produc- 
tions in America; that he should inquire whether 
it be true, that man and beast, in all cases, degene- 
rate in this portion of the globe. It is hoped, that 
in the following discourse, the reader will find suf- 
ficient reason to question the correctness of that po- 
sition. 

While we were considering the aborigines of 
America, and the changes to which men and cli~ 
mates submit, it became necessary, towards a per- 
fect investigation of the subject, to turn our atten- 
tion to the several climates of the other continent, 
and its inhabitants ; to view them as they now ap- 
pear, and as they appeared two or three thousand 
years ago. In this general view of the subject, cer- 
tain phenomena presented themselves that involved 



PREFACE, 



questions which seem to be essentially connected 
with good morals. A detailed solution of those 
questions has not been attempted ; but they seemed 
to demand some notice. Modern historians and 
philosophers are amusing themselves and their rea- 
ders every day with criticisms upon and objections 
to the Mosaic history of man. All men are equally 
bound to understand the foundation of moral ob- 
ligation. It is equally their duty to know the truth ; 
and they are equally interested in the love and prac- 
tice of virtue. If men who do not believe in the 
truth of revelation, may be excused for turning 
aside to persuade other men to adopt their useless 
unbelief, surely a writer may be excused for stat- 
ing some reasons for his belief, whose hopes of sal- 
vation are rested upon that record. If arguments 
favourable to virtue, and conducive to human hap - 
piness, can be deduced from civil or natural history, 
they are equally the property of every man whe 
travels in those fields, and they may be classed 
among the most desirable fruits of study. How- 
ever this may be, the reader will not have reason to 
complain that the following discourse is burdened 
with many observations that are not intimately 
connected with the subject, when we are compar- 
ing the inhabitants of America with those of the 
other continent. Some of the positions that have 
been stated v in opposition to the conjectures er 



PREFACE. 



v 



gratuitous and bold assertions of certain modern 
philosophers, are capable of demonstration, or other 
the most satisfactory proof ; but I have attempted to 
give little else than sketches or outlines of a few ar- 
guments ; and those are chiefly thrown into margi- 
nal notes, lest the reader's patience should be ex- 
hausted. 

It will be observed, that sundry facts are stated, 
in the following discourse, for which I have not 
given the authorities. Some of those facts were 
noted long since, for the help of my own memory. 
They were taken, in every case, from respectable 
sources, whose veracity I could not question. But 
in several instances the names were omitted and are 
now forgotten. The late Drs. Hahn and Luchman, 
while I studied at Utrecht under their care, were 
pleased to show me observations they had made ; 
one of them " de calore;" the other " de varieta- 
tibus generis humani." I am not informed whe- 
ther any thing, on these subjects, has been pub- 
lished in their names. 

I had the misfortune to lose papers, during the 
revolutionary war, that had been the fruit of some 
reading; they fell into the hands of the enemy. 
Although excuses cannot be admitted for a crude 
performance, this work, as I conceive, would have 
been more correct, if the manuscripts referred to 
had been preserved. Little of my time since that 



V1 PREFACE, 

Period has been devoted to studies of this kind 

Country, according to the pro mise of snndry tr 

respondents, some farther account of Indian " 
q-nes and obtaining conclusive materials tow 2 

the history of the original inhabitants. But peopl 

who hve near theancient monuments, and see Tm 

every day, are less disposed than we could w sh 
to dig in quest of antiquities. 



Mno-York, June 17, 1811. 



CONTENTS- 



Page, 

Of the climate in different parts of America 1 
The winters in some parts of North-America are 
colder than the winters in corresponding latitudes in 
Europe 3 
The general cause of heat in different places 4 
The cause of winds 5 

North-west winds prevail during the winter in the 
United States 7 

North-west winds and winter's cold decrease in North- 
America, and easterly winds became more prevalent 1 2 

The winters are more temperate on the western than 
on the eastern coast of America 14 

Summer in the high latitudes of South America is cold- 
er than in corresponding latitudes in Europe. It 
does not follow that the winters are colder 16 

Winters in Asia and Europe were formerly much 
colder than at present 1 7 

A forest produces more vapour than a watery plain sur- 
face, therefore a forest is colder than a cultivated 
soil IS 

Is heat a distinct substance, or is it a simple modifica- 
tion of bodies ? 20 

A dry surface is capable of receiving more heat than 
one that is wet 22 

Heat is removed by evaporation 25 

Heat, like all fluids, endeavours to preserve its equili- 
brium, but it does not seem to gravitate 26 

A white surface reflects most heat 28 

The temperature of summer and winter may be ex- 
pected to become more desirable in America than 
In corresponding latitudes of the old continent 30 

American Indians are improperly said to be a new race 
of men 31 

Different climates in Africa, Asia, and Europe pro- 
duce men of different colours and features 32 

Difference of colour in plants does not imply a differ- 
ent species, nor does a difference in the shape or co- 
lour of quadrupeds 35 

Features may be altered by art 40 

Changes in shape and colour are caused by climate 43 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



Colour is seated on the skin 47 
The colour of animals is fitted to the climate 5 i 

Quadrupeds in a cold climate are white, because white 

being a bad conductor retains the natural heat 52 
A black skin is fitted to a warm climate 56 
The effect of climate is to fit animals and vegetables 

to their respective habitations 57 
Men are always found to change their colour with the 

climate 60 
There should not be a great difference of colour 
among the inhabitants of America ; some difference 
has, nevertheless, been observed 68 
Quadrupeds do not degenerate in America 79 
The human species do not degenerate 82 
The American Indians have beards 83 
The savage man of America, like his savage brother 

on the other continent, is unkind to his female 88 
The Indian of America, like other savages, is attached 

to strong drink 9 1 

The American savage is not deficient in active cou- 

ra g e 92 
Every part of America was inhabited wlien discovered 

by Columbus 95 
The shepherd life never prevailed in America 99 
North-America was settled from Tartary or Japan 

and from Norway 102 
There was a time in which the aborigines were much 

more civilized than they are at present 112 
South- America was settled from India 128 
There are proofs of great antiquity in every part of 

the globe I45 
The human race appear to have had a recent origin 150 
These facts are not opposed to the Mosaic history 161 
The inhabitants of America, in the progress of time, 
may be expected to give proofs of genius at least 
equal to those of the other continent 168 



ERRATA. 

Page 25, line 15, for " paticlss," read particles. 

138 and 139, where the word " Roma" occurs, read Ramn 
139, Sine 2, for « Romasitoa," read Raniasitoa. 
3, for " derive," read desire. 



OBSERVATIONS, &c. 



WHEN the soil, climate, and animal pro- 
ductions of America are compared with 
those of the other continent, they suffer 
greatly by the unfavourable light in which 
they are commonly placed. America is 
described by writers of great celebrity, as a 
world lately risen from the ocean; as a 
country, in which the frigid temperature of 
the atmosphere seems to be impressed upon 
its animal productions; as a country, in which 
some vice of the climate, or some combi- 
nation of elements, prevents the expansion 
of animated nature, and causes man and 
beast to degenerate;* a country, for which 
a new and inferior race of men has been 
created. f Before we enter upon the history 
of North-Carolina, it may not be improper 



* Buffon, Reynolds, and Robertson, 

2 



f Karnes. 



( 2 ) 

to review the opinions, that have been ad- 
vanced, concerning the supposed defects of 
this continent. Whatever our situation, 
whatever our connections may be in life; 
whether we are patriots or parents, we can- 
not fail, to interest ourselves greatly, in the 
fortunes of those who may come after us. 
And if it should appear that the supposed 
vices of our soil and climate do not exist; if 
it should appear that America is, at least, 
equal to any other part of the world, we 
may conclude, without hesitation, that it 
must be our own fault, or the fault of our 
descendants, if they should sink below their 
ancestors in virtue, or any desirable quality 
of body or mind. 

The character, of the American climate, 
has chiefly been taken from observations 
made in the colonies, that are now the 
United States; for few observations on the 
climate have been made^ in those extensive 
provinces which are under the dominion 
of Spain or Portugal. That we may form a 
better estimate of the climate, in different 
parts of this great continent, it will be pro- 
per for us to consider the parts that are best 
known, and compare the present state of the 



( 3 ) 



climate in those parts, with observations that 
were made fifty or sixty years ago. If it 
shall appear that the climate in the United 
States of America is materially altered in 
the memory of man, it will then be proper 
to consider what has been the cause of that 
alteration; whether that cause is capable of 
producing great effects, and how long it may 
be expected to operate. It will also be pro- 
per to inquire, what was the prevailing tem- 
perature of the climate, in different parts of 
the old continent, above two thousand years 
ago, before it had been cultivated as at pre- 
sent. When we have finished this review, 
we shall be prepared to determine, whether 
there be any essential frigidity in the Ame- 
rican atmosphere. 

The medium temperature of our winters, 
in the Northern States of America, has been 
marked at twenty-eight degrees* below the 
temperature of corresponding latitudes in 
Europe; and the medium temperature of 
our summers, at eight degrees above the 
temperature of similar latitudes. Hasty con- 
clusions have been drawn from observations 



* Fahrenheit's therrnpmete 



( * ) 



of this kind, without considering the climate 
in other parts of America; the changes that 
cultivation has produced in the climates of 
the old continent, or the changes which 
the same cause has already produced in some 
parts of America. 

Although the extremes of heat are found 
near the equator, and the extremes of cold 
near the poles, it is well known that the 
temperature of different places is not uni- 
formly hot or cold, according to their seve- 
ral latitudes. The temperature of every 
place is greatly affected by its position; as it 
is high or low, as it respects mountains or 
plains, sea or dryland. It is also affected 
by the prevailing winds. The heat of the 
sun is the general cause of wind; but the 
particular direction of the wind, in different 
countries, depends on a combination of 
many circumstances. If the sun was to re- 
main a considerable time over any given 
part of the earth, that part, being greatly 
heated, would heat the atmosphere near the 
surface; would cause it to expand, to be- 
come light, and to rise to the upper regions; 
from which it would escape in all directions. 
The cold air being more heavy, would im- 



( 5 ) 



mediately rush in, to supply the place of 
that which had passed off. In that case there 
would be a constant wind from all directions, 
east, west, north and south, blowing to- 
wards the heated part. But as the sun moves 
in his diurnal course, or seems to move from 
east to west, near the equator, and heats the 
earth in his progress, the heated air must 
rise and escape from the sun's tract, and the 
colder air must rush in from the north or 
south. The sun must also be followed by a 
current of air from the east; but there can 
be no current from the west, near the equa- 
tor; because the sun, who moves, or seems to 
move, much faster than the wind, meets the 
western column of the atmosphere, and 
gives it an opposite direction. As the east- 
ern column follows the sun, and another 
column from the north, in northern lati- 
tudes, presses to the southward, a com- 
pound course is formed by those different 
winds, and a regular trade wind is formed 
by those winds, which in northern latitudes 
is east northerly, and in southern latitudes is 
east southerly. But those north-east and 
south-east winds meeting near the sun's path, 
the trade wind, in that parallel, is nearly 



I 



( 6 ) 

clue east. Such is the cause, and the course 
of those uniform and regular winds that 
prevail in warm climates. Those winds, 
not being interrupted by mountains or high 
lands, usually extend to the twenty-seventh 
or twenty-eighth degree of latitude, north 
or south, according as the sun may have 
northern or southern declination.* The 
same cause must ever produce the same ef- 
fects; whence it follows that if the surface 
of the globe, in low latitudes, was all co- 
vered with water, or if it was solid earth, 
plain and uniform, we might determine with 
some degree of certainty what would be the 
direction of the wind at any given time and 
place through the year. From the great 
regularity that appears in trade winds, we 
are naturally induced to look for some order 
in the general course of winds in high lati- 
tudes. The atmosphere is known to have a 
considerable weight and tendency, like wa- 
ter, and every other fluid, to preserve its 
level or equilibrium. The air under the 
sun's path, being heated, becomes specifi- 
cally lighter, and escapes to a colder region. 



Jn tlie Scutli-St a they seldom extend beyond the twentieth degree. 



( 7 ) 



Its place, in northern latitudes, is supplied 
by a column of air from the north-east; but 
the place of that column is also to be supplied ; 
for a constant equilibrium must be preserved. 
The heated air, from the sun's path, rising 
to the upper regions, escapes to the north- 
ward. In a short time it loses its heat, and 
moves to the eastward, to supply the place 
of that column which had lately formed the 
trade wind, by passing to the south-westward : 
thus in high latitudes, the prevailing winds 
should come from the westward, because in 
low latitudes they come from the eastward. 
That is to say, the trade winds should be 
easterly, and in higher latitudes the winds 
should be westerly.* In the Pacific Ocean, 
above the twenty-eighth degree of latitude,, 
it is said that the wind blows steadily from 
the west. 

There are few places, in the habitable 
world, where we should expect to find such 
a prevalence of north-west winds, as in the 
United States of America, near the Atlantic 
Ocean. Our coast is washed by the Gulf 
stream; and the waters of that stream, lately 

* See proof? and explanations A. 



( 8 1 



heated between the tropics, are warmer by 
fifteen or twenty degrees, than the waters 
through which they pass, in their progress 
to the north-eastward. The incumbent air, 
being heated by this warm water, passes off, 
and the colder air, from the northward, oc- 
cupies its place. There is a great ridge, or 
sundry ridges of mountains, on the opposite 
side of the Atlantic States, that run nearly in 
a north-east direction, parallel to the Gulf 
stream. The air upon those mountains, as 
upon every other mountain, is cold. The 
direct course from the Apelachian moun- 
tains to the Gulf stream, is nearly south-east. 
Here then we find a particular cause for the 
prevalence of westerly winds, or rather of 
north-westerly winds, in some parts of the 
United States, in addition to the general cause 
before mentioned. The air to the south- 
eastward is heated by the Gulf stream; it is 
cooled to the north-westward by the moun- 
tains; and the intermediate surface, while it 
is covered by trees, can have little effect in 
warming the atmosphere. It is doubtless 
understood, that in every contest between 
cold and warm air, that which is cold, being 
heaviest, always prevails. As the north-west 



( 9 ) 



Winds, considering their origin, are supposed 
to be cold, we should expect, during the 
winter, a greater degree of cold near the 
eastern coast of the United States, than is 
commonly felt in corresponding latitudes in 
other countries. But the character of Ame- 
rica is not to be taken from this particular 
tract; neither are we to believe that the su- 
perior degree of cold, in this very tract, will 
be permanent. It is well known, that in the 
Atlantic States, the cold of our winters is 
greatly moderated. As the surface of the 
country is cleared, a greater quantity of heat 
is reflected ; the air becomes warmer, and the 
north-west winds are checked in their pro- 
gress. It is generally admitted, that in Mas- 
sachusetts and New-Hampshire, the quantity 
of snow that fell, during the winter, fifty 
years ago, was more than double of what has 
fallen, in any winter, for several years past. 
The river Delaware, in the latitude of forty 
degrees, used to be frozen by the middle of 
November; but of late it has seldom been 
frozen before Christmas; and there are win- 
ters in which it is never frozen across. As the 
westerly winds decrease, the easterly winds 
prevail. They have become more frequent, 



( io ) 



and they extend to a greater distance across 
the country than formerly. The face of cul- 
tivated lands, in the summer season, is fre- 
quently warmer than the surface of the oce- 
an, in the same latitude : hence it is that east- 
erly winds are observed to increase. It is well 
known, that ships from Europe make their 
passage now in less time, by one third, than 
they required about fifty years ago; for the 
north-westerly winds, that formerly prevailed 
on the coast, frequently kept off the shipping 
for several weeks. They are now favoured 
by easterly winds, which have increased so 
much of late, that they are like to be our 
prevailing winds during the summer, in the 
Atlantic States — a circumstance that must 
increase the moisture of our atmosphere, and 
will be very acceptable to the husbandman.* 

* It is a remarkable circumstance, that though we have 
near twice as much rain in the United States of America 
as falls, at a medium, in most parts of Europe, we suffer 
occasionally by drought. Our westerly winds are exceed- 
ingly dry; but these winds prevail in summer, and in a 
short time carry off the moisture, so that frequent showers 
are necessary to the production, of good crops. When 
easterly winds shall prevail, there will be much less occa- 
sion for rain, because the moist atmosphere, from the sur- 
face of the ocean, will not speedily dry the soil. 



( H ) 



I am aware that the cause I have stated, for 
the former intensity of the north-west winds, 
is contrary to the received opinion. It is 
commonly alleged, that we are indebted 
to the great lakes for the coldest of those 
winds; an opinion that is not supported by 
any principles of philosophy. The lakes, 
in general, do not freeze during the winter; 
hence it follows, that the water in those lakes, 
being temperate, would moderate the -seve- 
rity of cold winds, rather than increase it. 
We know that winds from the ocean or from 
any great body of water that does not con- 
tain islands of ice, are seldom very cold. 
According to this observation, it is found that 
the north-west winds, between the great lakes 
and the mountains, are not so cold as they 
are between those mountains and the Atlantic 
Ocean, in the same degree of latitude. It 
is not alleged that a current of air never 
crosses the Apelachian mountains, but the 
few currents that pass can never be very 
strong, considering the height of the moun- 
tains.* If the north-west winds came to us 

* The general height of the Apelachian mountains is 
£bund to be near eleven hundred yards. In some parts they 
rise three quarters of a mile above the common surface of 



i 12 ) 



from the other side of the mountains, there 
is little reason why we should not have them 
as frequent as formerly, nor why they should 
be of shorter continuance. But it is known 
that they are much less frequent than for- 
merly,* and that their usual continuance is 
much shorter. One of the severest north- 
Westers I ever felt was at sea, about the thirty- 
ninth degree of latitude, a few miles from 
the coast. It demolished every fence that 
was near the shore; but the severity of the 
wind was not remarkable at the distance of 
forty miles inland. It was certainly caused 
by the difference of temperature between 
the air above the Gulf stream, and the air 
above the coast that was covered with snow. 

We are not to conclude from observations 
made in the Atlantic States, that the winter's 

the earth, but in many places they do not exceed half a mile., 
I was informed by a correct observer, that near the river 
Holsten, in the State of Tennessee, he saw clouds from 
the eastward, that seemed to have crossed the mountains, 
then in sight. Ke was surprized at the circumstance, and 
one of the oldest settlers, who chanced to be present, as- 
sured him that he had never seen the like before. They 
presumed that there must be a severe storm on the coast 
of Carolina, and such was the case, as he afterwards dis- 
covered. 

* See proofs and explanations A. 



£ w ) 



cold in America is generally greater than 
the degree of cold that prevails on the other 
continent, in like circumstances. We have 
seen the reason why westerly winds should 
prevail, in high latitudes, and we have shown 
that they do thus prevail. If those winds 
come from mountains or high lands, they 
must be cold; if they come from the sea, 
they must be temperate. On the western 
coast of America, near the Pacific Ocean, 
the winters are temperate and short; the 
position of land and sea in those regions, 
being the reverse of the position upon the 
Atlantic coast. The westerly winds, on that 
side of the continent, come from the ocean. 
But upon the continent of Asia, opposite to 
America, the winters, in the same latitude, 
are much more severe. The rivers freeze in 
China, in the latitude of Rome; for their 
westerly winds come from a high unculti- 
vated tract of land. Nor is it probable that 
Pekin, which is nearly in the latitude of 
Philadelphia, will ever be relieved from the 
chilling effects of north-westerly winds; for 
the rude inhabitants of Tartary have little 
disposition to cultivate the soil. Captain 
Cooke, the celebrated navigator, observed 



( I* ) 



diat vegetation at Nootka Sound, in the lati- 
tude of forty-nine degrees, was in great for- 
wardness in April. Captain Magee, of Bos- 
ton, who passed a winter at Nootka Sound, 
informed the writer, that he saw little snow 
in that region. The spring appeared on 
the coast, as he alleged, about thirty days 
sooner than it appears in Massachusetts. 
We are also told by Meares, in his Voyages 
from China to the north-west coast of Ame- 
rica, that " the western side of America is 
a mild and moderate climate that " the 
winters generally set in with hard gales from 
the south-east." There is seldom any frost 
on the coast till January, " when it is so 
slight as rarely to prevent the inhabitants 
from navigating the Sound in their canoes." 

On the western side of the Apelachian 
mountain, where cultivation is hardly begun, 
the winters are much more temperate than 
near the Atlantic Ocean. This difference is 
attested by numerous settlers; and it has been 
observed that paroquets winter on the river 
Scito, in latitude thirty-nine. But I have not 
heard of their wintering in any part of the 
Atlantic States, to the northward of thirty-six; 
viz. in the Great Dismal of Tyrrel county, in 



( 15 ) 



North-Carolina. It has also been observed, 
that tender plants thrive better in the western 
country, three or four degrees farther north* 
than in the Atlantic States.* De la Perouse, 
on the western coast of North-America, in the 
latitude of 58. 37. measured pine trees that 
were six feet in diameter and one hundred 
feet high. But that very officer had formerly 
observed, that trees of the same species, on 
the other side of the continent, near the 
Prince of Wales' Fort, in Hudson's Bay, in 
the same degree of latitude, " are scarcely 
big enough for a studding-sail boom." This 
single fact may be stated as a clear and suffi- 
cient proof, that the climate on the western 
side of America is much more temperate 
than it is on the eastern side. It serves also 
to prove, that no estimate should be made of 
the American climate, from the past or pre- 
sent temperature of our winters, in some of 
the Atlantic States. 

It has generally been supposed that the 
cold in Terra del Fuego, the most southern 
part of America, is intolerable during the 
winter; but we have no good reason to be- 

* koskeifs History of the Moravian Missions. 



( 10 ) 



lieve, that it exceeds the degree of cold that 
prevails in the northern parts of the old con- 
tinent, in the same degree of latitude. The 
contrary is very probable. It is known that 
land admits of more heat than water, and 
its temperature is more easily affected. From 
this it follows that the summers, in high lati- 
tudes, in South-America, are much colder 
than the summers in corresponding northern 
latitudes in the old continent; for America 
being very narrow and mountainous in those 
regions, cannot be much heated by the sum- 
mer's sun; and the adjacent seas are temper- 
ed by floating ice; hence the land in Terra 
del Fuego, is covered with snow through the 
summer. But the superior cold of their 
winters is not to be inferred from this cir- 
cumstance : for it is ascertained by observat- 
ions made in the Falkland islands, during 
the three winter months, that the cold in 
those islands does not exceed the winter's 
cold in London, which is nearly in the same 
latitude.* As there is little dry land in that 
vicinity, or solid plain surface, by which 
the air may be heated, it follows, that the 



* Dr. 3. Ji. Forster 



t 17 ) 



medium summer heat in Falkland islands, is 
not more than twenty degrees above the 
winter's cold. The effects of reflected heat, 
by this single fact, are placed in a striking 
point of view. In the province of Chili, in 
South-America, the winters are warmer than 
in the northern parts of Spain.* 

From this survey of the different parts of 
America, we are induced to suspect those 
philosophers of partiality or prejudice, who 
mention the coldness of our climate as a proof 
that America has lately emerged from the 
ocean; and who state this allegation in sup- 
port of another conjecture, viz. that animal 
nature must degenerate here. The old con- 
tinent is not supposed to have risen, of late, 
from the ocean, but we can mark the period 
when the winters in Asia and Europe were 
as cold, perhaps colder, than they now are 
in corresponding latitudes in America. The 
inhabitants of those regions must be indebted 
to cultivation alone, for the present tempe- 
rature of their climate. As the number of 
the human race increases, this globe, by a 
fortunate change of temperature, affords them 



* De Ulloa- 

4 



( m i 

a more comfortable residence. The winters 
must have been very cold, seventeen hun- 
dred years ago, in Italy, else Juvenal could 
not have mentioned the necessity of cutting 
the ice, on the Tiber, in order to come at 
the water.* Horace could not have de- 
scribed the streets of Rome, as full of ice 
and snow; nor could Virgil, with any pro- 
priety, have recommended great attention 
to young sheep, lest the cold should destroy 
them. 

In the present age, ice is not found on the 
Tiber, Cattle are not injured by cold in that 
part of Italy. Neither does the Euxine freeze, 
nor wine, in its vicinity, as formerly they 
did, when the Roman poet, in pathetic 
strains, lamented his banish men t.-j- The 
northern parts of Spain, as Strobo tells us, 
were thinly inhabited, by reason of cokL 



* Hybernum fracta glacie descendet in amnem, 
Ter matutino Tiberi mergetur. 

Juv. Sat. vi. line 521. 
" Glacies ne frigida laedat 
Molle pecus." 

Virg. Geo. lib. iii. 1. 29S. 
t Ipse vides certe glacie concrescere Pontum 
Ipse vides rigido stantia vino gelu. 

Ovid de Ponto, lib. iv. el, % 



( 19 ) 



And we are told by Livy, that, for a month 
together, the ground was covered with snow, 
four feet deep, at a town near Barcelona.* 
Germany was so cold, about the same epoch, 
that it would neither produce apples, grapes, 
nor other fruit.f The forests in Thrace and 
Panonia, as we are told by the ancients, were 
covered with snow through the greater part 
of the year; and white bears were common 
in Thrace as now in Siberia. There was a 
considerable degree of cold eighteen hun~ 
dred years ago in Palestine, where they have 
very little winter at present, and very little 
cold, towards the latter part of March.:* If 
we look farther back, one thousand years, 
we shall find that snow and ice were familiar 
to the inhabitants of that country.^ 

1 shall add but another fact, in proof, that 
the winter's cold is greatly moderated within 

* Triginta dies obsidio fuit per quos raro unquam nis 
minor quatuor pedes alta jacuit. 

Liv. lib. xxi. Bel. Pun. 

f Germania frugiferum arborum impatiens. Tacitus. 

\ The servants and officers stood there, who had made a 
fire of coals, for it was cold. John xviii. 18. 

§ He giveth snow like wool; hescattereth the hoar-frost 
like ashes; he casteth forth his ice like morsels: who caB 
stand before his cold? Psalm cxlvii. 16, 17, 



( ) 



the temperate latitudes. It appears from the 
observation of travellers, compared with an- 
cient historians, that though the number of 
lions is greatly decreased in Libya, they have 
increased vary much, within the last two 
thousand years, in Turkey and Persia. This 
increase cannot be accounted for, as I con- 
ceive, except by observing that regions, which 
formerly were too cold in winter to become 
the residence of lions, are now so much 
"warmer as to be fitted to their constitutions. 

Having alleged, that a climate, disagree- 
ably cold, may become temperate and warm 
by cultivation alone; I shall attempt some 
explanation of the process, by which so 
great an effect may be produced, by a cause 
that is very simple. 

The theory of heat, the subject of this 
inquiry, is confessedly involved in many 
difficulties; but our explanation will not be 
affected by the diversity of opinions which 
have Leen advanced on that head. 

Does heat proceed directly from the sun, 
or is it generated, on this globe, by the light 
of the sun? Is heat or fire a distinct sub- 
stance? Is there an igneous fluid that moves, 
like other fluids, by certain laws, penetrating 



( 28 } 



all other bodies, augmenting their size, and 
exciting the sensation of heat ? Are we ra- 
ther to believe, that heat is a simple modifi- 
cation of bodies, depending on the vibratory 
motion of their particles? The latter hypo- 
thesis seems to explain the most obvious phe- 
nomena of nature; but there are other phe- 
nomena, which cannot easily be explained, 
without having recourse to an igneous fluid; 
to a substance sui generis, that pervades all 
nature; a substance that may be active or 
inactive; that may affect the senses or be- 
come perfectly neutral, according as it is 
situated or combined. The light of the sun 
is confessedly the general cause of heat in 
our atmosphere. How does the sun occa- 
sion heat, it being at least probable, that heat 
does not come directly from the sun ? This 
is a question of difficult solution. A clear, 
transparent, unclouded atmosphere, is not 
heated by the direct rays of the sun; for 
light passes through it without obstruction; 
and there is reason to believe that resistance 
is necessary to the excitation of heat. The 
rays of the sun, striking the surface of the 
earth, by which they are resisted, cause the 
surface to be heated, and the atmosphere is 



( 22 ) 



heated by the surface of the earth. Hence 
it follows that the atmosphere can never be 
warmer than the surface of the earth, nor is 
it ever so warm, at a distance from the earth, 
as near its surface. At the distance of 5340 
yards above the plain of the horizon, between 
the tropicks, the temperature of the atmos- 
phere is constantly below the freezing point 
of water. The earth is heated by the sun, 
more or less, according to the quality or po- 
sition of the surface. The more oblique the 
direction of the rays may be, in falling upon 
the surface of the earth, the smaller is the 
number that fall upon a given space, and 
they are the less capable of heating the sur- 
face; therefore the heat should be greatest 
near the equator, provided the surface of 
the earth be level in those regions. A dry 
surface receives more heat than one that is 
wet, and retains it longer. The sands of 
Nigritia are frequently heated by the sun 
to 140 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
Dry roads and the dry surface of a field are 
often heated to a high degree. But a wa- 
tery surface can never be made very warm 
by the sun; for evaporation is the necessary 
effect of heat, and the loss of heat is the ne- 



( 23 ) 



cessary consequence of evaporation, part oi 
the heat being carried off by the vapour, 
The generation of cold, or, to speak more cor- 
rectly, the reduction of heat by evaporation* 
is a process that has long been understood, and 
is the foundation of daily operations. The epi- 
cure, who is no philosopher, cools his wine in 
a warm climate, by exposing a bottle to the 
wind, covered with a wet cloth. And the 
East Indian obtains ice at Benanes, in earthen 
pans, that have not been glazed, where the 
temperature of the atmosphere is never so 
low as the freezing point. The sun's rays 
falling upon wet land, or upon land covered 
with trees, cause evaporation, and e heat 
of the surface is reduced in proportion to 
the fluid that is evaporated, in a given time ; 
for every particle of water that escapes, must 
be charged with a portion of heat; and the 
loss of heat is the same thing as the gene- 
ration of cold.* From the cooling effects 

* We are not perfectly correct when we speak of the 
generation of cold, for it is admitted that cold is a nega- 
tive quality. It implies nothing else than the want of a 
certain degree of heat. There is not any body in nature 
without some heat. Ice itself contains a greater or less 
degree. The ice of water contains more heat than the ic& 
*€ brandy, and that contains more than the ice of mercury- 



C '«* ) 



of evaporation, upon the surface of the earthy 
it follows that cold winters are generally con- 
sequent upon wet autumns. The cold of 
winter is chiefly moderated by the heat of 
the earth ; and much evaporation, in sum- 
mer or autumn, cools the earth to a consi- 
derable depth. It appears, from experi- 
ments,* that land covered by trees, emits 
one third more vapour, than a surface of the 
same extent, covered with water. The va- 
pours that arise from forests, are soon con- 
verted into rain, and that rain becomes the 
subject of future evaporation, by which the 
^arth is further cooled. Hence it follows, 
that a country, in a state of nature, covered 
with trees, must be much colder than the 
same country when cleared. Little heat can 
be excited on the surface of a great forest; 
for in every part, where the sun can pene- 
trate through the trees or bushes, it strikes a 
surface covered with stagnant water, or with 
vegetables highly saturated with water. 

This cooling process affects every country 
more or less. The heat would be intolera- 
ble in low latitudes, if the process did not 

* Dr, Hale'^ Experiments v 



I 25 ) 

exist there, to a great degree. A perpetual 
verdure and thick foliage, within the tropi- 
cal regions, tend greatly to moderate the 
heat, by copious evaporations. In sandy 
deserts, where the verdure is deficient, the 
heat becomes intense. In high latitudes, 
where the country is not mountainous, by- 
exposing a smooth surface, without muck 
timber, to the influence of the sun, the in- 
habitants may enjoy a temperate climate. 

It has generally been alleged, that evapo- 
ration depends upon the attraction that exists 
between air and water, and that it is effected 
by the cohesion of the particles of air to the 
paticles of water; for it is found that evapo- 
ration is greatly promoted by the help of a 
fresh breeze. This theory is plausible, but 
there is reason to believe, from various ex- 
periments, that evaporation chiefly depends 
on heat. , Let the air- be pumped from a glass 
receiver, and water will be observed to rise 
in the receiver, or the process of evaporation 
will go on more speedily, than in the com- 
mon air, with an equal degree of heat. The 
pressure of stagnant air, in the latter case, 
seems to retard the vapour in rising. When 
it is alleged that evaporation depends on 

5 



( m ) 



heat, or upon the attraction that exists be- 
tween fire and water, or upon the elasticity 
which the particles of water acquire from 
heat, I am not inattentive to the observa- 
tion above stated, that evaporation is pro- 
moted by wind; for it is obvious that a free 
circulation of air is necessary to remove the 
vapour that is excited by heat. Hence it 
is that calm days are generally warm, for 
the vapour is not removed, and in such case, 
little cold is generated by evaporation. There 
are not any experiments from which it would 
appear that heat, like every other substance 
of which we have any knowledge, gravi- 
tates towards the centre; it rather seems to 
ascend, bat like every other fluid, it endea- 
vours to preserve its balance.* For this pur- 
pose it penetrates all bodies, either by as- 
cending or descending, though it penetrates 
or passes through some bodies with more 
ease than others. It is strongly attracted by 
water, as we have just observed, but it will 
forsake the water, in order to preserve its 
own equilibrium. Bring a glass bottle of 

* In this case I speak of heat as if It was a distinct 
fluid ; for the healing cause in most cases seems to act bv 
the laws of fluidity. 



{ *» > 



cold water into a warm chamber, and the 
heat near the bottle will penetrate the glass, 
that it may enter the colder water, and res- 
tore the balance of heat. In that case, the 
invisible vapour that was attached to the heat, 
not being capable of penetrating the glass, 
must remain on the surface of the bottle, 
where it is changed into visible drops of wa- 
ter. It has been observed, that heat does 
not appear to have any tendency towards 
the centre, like every material body of 
which we have any knowledge. On the 
contrary, it seems to act in direct opposition 
to the power of attraction. The tendency 
of heat is to cause repulsion between the 
constituent parts of a body, and that repul- 
sion, by a great degree of heat, is such as 
to dissolve the continuity of the parts, and 
destroy the body. In solid bodies, where 
the parts cohere strongly, the effect of mo- 
derate heat is simply to enlarge the bulk. In 
fluid bodies, the external parts are separated 
by the repulsion of heat, and fly off. The 
more they are heated, the longer is the 
sphere of repulsion, or the greater is the 
distance at which the particles are retained 
from one another. Water, reduced to vapour. 



I 28 ) 

boon loses part of its heat in the upper re- 
gions; in which case the particles- approach- 
ing one another are formed into drops, and 
descend in rain. In the process of forming 
rain, the colder atmosphere receives heat 
from the vapour, and this addition to the 
heat of the atmosphere, in calm weather, is 
frequently perceived on the surface of the 
earth. Viewing the subject in this light, 
and regarding heat as the vehicle of vapour, 
we can readily account for the great loss of 
heat, or the great prevalence of cold, in a 
vast forest, where the heating cause is weak, 
and the process of evaporation copious and 
constant. 

Heat, or light, the parent of heat, like 
every elastic fluid, is reflected by a smooth 
surface, but the quantity that is reflected 
depends much on the colour of the surface. 
White reflects more heat, and black reflects 
less, than any other colours. It is found 
that a smooth white surface reflects three 
fourths of the light or heat that falls upon 
it,* but a black surface transmits the greater 

* Therefore the backs and sides of fire-places should be 
snade of white stone, but never of black iron; for iron 
transmits the heat freely. 



( 89 ) 



part. Bodies of different colours differ great- 
ly from one another in the quality of trans- 
mitting heat, or the power of reflecting it, 
This is a fact that claims particular attention, 
and should be well understood, for we shall 
have occasion, once and again, to refer to 
this remarkable difference, when we consider 
the various complexions of the human race. 
The difference here alleged may be ascer- 
tained by experiments that are simple and 
satisfactory. Every man who has, at differ- 
ent times, worn black clothes and white, in a 
warm sun, has felt the difference. Lay a 
piece of black cloth and a piece of white 
cloth upon the snow, in the sun; the black 
cloth will be observed to sink into the snow 
much faster than the white; because the 
black transmits the heat, by which the snow 
is melted, but the white reflects the heat. It 
Is not a good conductor. Expose two ther- 
mometers, equally graduated, to the rays of 
the sun; the bulb of one thermometer being 
black, the other white. The mercury will 
rise much sooner in the thermometer that 
has the black bulb; for the light or heat 
does not pass with so much ease through the 
white surface of the other thermometer. 



( 30 ) 



Although the greatest quantity of heat is 
reflected by a white surface, it is reflected in 
certain proportions by bodies of every other 
colour; but the smoother and drier the sur- 
face may be, the more heat will be reflected 
by it. Hence it is, that cold climates are 
greatly improved by cultivation. When a 
considerable part of our mountains shall be 
subjected to the plow, and the Atlantic states 
shall be fully peopled, I deem it probable 
that cotton will be produced in Pennsylvania, 
and oranges in Maryland. It is not to be 
expected that the American winter, above 
the latitude of fifty degrees, will ever be- 
come more temperate than winters in corres- 
ponding latitudes of the other continent, for 
they are circumstanced, in many parts, nearly 
alike; but the temperature of the American 
summer, in low latitudes, will certainly be- 
come more desirable. 

The aborigines of America have not suf- 
fered less than the climate, under the cen- 
sure of historians who trusted to the report 
of inaccurate and superficial observers. The 
American Indians, as they allege, are a new 
race of men. It is conceived, by an author 



( 31 ) 



of great erudition,* that " America has not 
" been peopled from any part of the known 
? world. The external appearance of the 
" inhabitants make this conjecture approach 
" to a certainty, as they are evidently dif- 
<< ferent in appearance from any other known 
" people. There is not a single hair on the 
if body of any American; no appearance of 
" beard. Another distinguishing mark is 
" their copper-colour, uniformly the same 
" in all climates, hot and cold, and differing 
" from the colour of every other nation. " — - 
We shall presently show good reason for 
asserting that the American Indians, or many 
of them, are descended from the Tartars of 
Asia, or from the more southern Asiatics; 
but the hypothesis that refers to different 
races of men, seems to claim particular at- 
tention. If different races of men should 
be found upon the old continent, as some 
philosophers have alleged, we could not be 
surprised to find an additional race in Ame- 
rica; that circumstance could not be more 
remarkable than the discovery of a new bird 
qy quadruped. But history and philosophy 



* Karnes's Sketches, vol. ii. b. 2. sk, 12. 



( 32 } 



refuse their assent to the original hypothesis. 
They teach us that the earth has been peo- 
pled by a single race of men. 

Before we attend to the colour and simila- 
rity of the savage men of America, we shall 
take a general view of the old continent and 
its inhabitants. In the different climates of 
Africa, Asia, and Europe, there are men of 
all the different shades or colours from white 
to black; there are hardly two nations per- 
fectly alike; short, middle-sized, and tall; 
white, brown, tawny, red, olive, copper- 
coloured, swarthy, and black; features very 
coarse or very fine; hair brown, fair, red, 
and black, long, curled, frizled, or woolly; 
we find innumerable combinations of these 
different shapes and colours, according to the 
different degrees of latitude, temperature, or 
civilization. How many races shall we count? 
The number five has been taken; but fifty 
might be taken for the same reason. They 
differ in some particulars. The five races of 
men on the old continent, have been distin- 
guished m the following manner, according 
ro the climates they inhabit.* 

* Buflbn. 



( 33 ) 



1. The Laplanders, Danish, Swedish, and 
Russian; the inhabitants of Greenland, Kamt- 
schatka, and the Samoid Tartars, from lati- 
tude sixty degrees north to the pole; their 
colour, deep brown, almost black; shape 
short, large head, flat nose, hollow small 
eyes, high cheek bones, wide mouth, thick 

lips. 'Mil 

2. The Tartars from latitude fifty fo sixty. 
To this race is joined the Chinese and Ja- 
panese. Their colour, olive, tawny, white; 
shape middle size, broad face, flat nose, small 
eyes, high cheek bones, narrow chin, black 
hair, large thighs, little beard. 

3. The inhabitants of Europe, Georgia, 
Circassia, Asia Minor, and the northern parts 
of Africa, to the southward of fifty degrees. 
Their colour, white; shape, middle size, 
rather tall; eyes blue, hazel or black; hair 
flaxen, brown, red, black. 

4. The southern Asiatics inhabiting the 
peninsula of India and its islands; to which 
belong the Persians and Arabians. Their 
colour, olive, black; shape, slender, well 
formed; Roman nose. 

5. The inhabitants of the southern parts 
of Africa, extending from latitude eighteen 

6 



i m ) 



north to eighteen south, except the Ethio- 
peans and Abyssians. Their colour, black; 
shape, middle size; flat nose, thick lips, 
woolly hair. 

Among the nations who are thus distin- 
guished, according to the latitudes they in- 
habit, there may be found strong charac- 
teristic distinctions. The short, with coarse 
features, are not equally short, nor ill fa- 
voured. Among the blacks there are coarse 
and small features; strong and slender forms; 
deep black, and innumerable varieties of 
lighter shades, until they become swarthy; 
from flat noses and thick lips, to high noses 
and thin lips; from short frizzled wool, to 
long straight hair. Among the nations who 
are called fair or white, there are so many 
shapes and shades, that no two men could 
be expected to agree in fixing where the 
white ends, and where the tawny, the red, 
the brown, or olive begins. The shapes and 
features of different nations, said to have the 
same colour, differ again as much as their 
shades of colour, whether we regard the 
white, brown, olive, or black. With this 
view of the subject, is it reasonable, is it less 
than whimsical, to depart from the ancient 



( 35 ) 



hypothesis, of one race of men, for the sake 
of making five or six ? 

In distinguishing the different species of 
animals, it is generally agreed, that « any 
" two animals who can procreate together, 
" and whose issue may continue to procre- 
*< ate, are of the same species. " To this 
rule we have not discovered one certain ob- 
jection among birds, quadrupeds, or other 
animals. If the races of men are to be de- 
termined by the same rule, they are all of 
the same family. There are men who differ 
very much at present from one another, in 
manners, shape and colour, who, neverthe- 
less, must be allowed to have sprung from 
the same stock, if we give any credit to the 
evidence of history. The argument by 
which it is contended, that the human race 
are not all of the same species, appears to 
rest upon their difference from one another 
in shape and colour; but this argument 
would be weak and futile if it was applied 
to vegetables, or to animals of any other 
kind. The species of plants cannot be dis- 
tinguished by colour. The ranunculus, in 
its native soil, is always yellow; when it is 
transplanted, it acquires various colours, 



( 36 } 



Tulips, auriculas, and dianthuses, of the 
same species, differ greatly from one another 
in colour. The smell, taste, colour, and 
size of pears and plumbs are changed by the 
difference of air, water, climate, and cul- 
ture. The changes that quadrupeds sustain 
by heat, cold, soil, climate, and food, are 
not less remarkable than the changes that 
are observed in vegetables. The farther they 
are removed from their native soil, wherever 
it lies, the greater changes they sustain in 
shape and colour. Quadrupeds of the same 
family, in the state of nature, are generally 
of one colour; but they become of various 
colours by domestication and rich pastures. 
Wild cattle are brown; tame cattle are of 
many colours. Horses, deers, and goats, 
brought into a state of servitude, or handled 
and fed by men, change their colour. The 
horse of Arabia is strong and beautiful, with 
short hair and a smooth skin. In Russia he 
is clumsy, with a large head, and is clothed 
in winter with a shaggy, frizzled coat. In 
China he is weak and spiritless. The cow 
among the Eluth Tartars is seven or eight 
feet high; in the highlands of Scotland she 
is four feet high; in Cuba she has large 



( 37 ) 

horns; in Iceland no horns. The sheep, in 
its wild state, among the mountains of Great 
Tartary and China, is large and bold, high 
as a deer, and covered with hair. In Mus- 
covy, Iceland, and some other cold coun- 
tries, it has four or sk horns; in temperate 
climates no horns. In Persia, Barbary, and 
Egypt, sheep have broad tails; in cold cli- 
mates their tails are small. In temperate 
climates they have fine wool; in hot climates 
they have hair instead of wool. Whether 
the sheep, so different in their appearance 
in one country from those of another, be of 
the same race, cannot be questioned, for all 
the marks of distinction may be altered, in 
a few years, by the change of soil and cli- 
mate. We have seen the immediate descen- 
dants of excellent wool-bearing sheep, alter 
in form, and become hairy as goats, by re- 
moval from a temperate to a hot climate. 
Animals in general that are short lived, 
change their appearance soonest by the 
change of climate; for such animals seem 
to be most affected by the influence of soil, 
air, and nutriment. Birds of the same spe- 
cies, in their wild state, are all of the same 
colour; they acquire different colours by 



( « ) 



domestication and a change of food. Pi- 
geons, in the state of nature, are alike; but 
domestic pigeons are of many colours. The 
turkey in America, its native country,* is a 

* Some writers have alleged that the turkey is a native 
of the old continent; and many people, deceived by its 
English name, presume that it came from Turkey. Those 
people are not informed that in many parts of Europe it 
is called « coq de Inde," the cock of India, alluding per- 
haps to the West-Indies. It will hardly be alleged that the 
Greeks or Romans were acquainted with the turkey; for 
the fowl which they called Meleagris, or Gallina Africana, 
was doubtless the Pintado, or spotted Guinea fowl. Nor 
do we find that any writer, in Europe, has ever spoken of a 
fowl that can be supposed to have been the turkey, before 
the discovery of America by Columbus; but mention is 
made of the turkey, called by a different name, in every 
part of Europe, within forty or fifty years of that disco- 
very; and it is uniformly spoken of, about that time, as a 
rare and valuable fowl. We are also assured by travellers, 
as Du Halde, Chardin, and others, that turkeys were hard- 
ly known two hundred years ago in Persia, China, India, 
or upon the coast of Africa. The few that were seen in 
those regions were confessedly of late importation. On 
the contrary, all the adventurers to America, who have 
written their travels, soon after it was discovered, speak 
of the turkey as a fowl that abounds in the new world; and 
many of us know that wild turkeys are exceedingly numer- 
ous in such parts of the country as are not settled. From 
these facts, which can hardly be disputed, it seems very 
probable that the turkey was originally brought to Europe 
from America. This, however, may be called presump- 



( 39 ) 



dark-coloured bird, almost black, and the 
whole family are of one colour. By domes- 
tication many of them are speckled, and 
some of them have become white. In ge- 
neral we have reason to believe that every 
quadruped, and every fowl, changes its shape 

tive evidence, wherefore the following is submitted as 
clear and direct. 

In the year 1496 Henry the seventh, desirous to partake 
with the Spaniards in the discovery of new countries, dis- 
patched Cabot, an experienced seaman, in quest of land 
to the westward. Cabot was accompanied by three small 
vessels, fitted out in London. (Verulam's History of Henry 
7th.) During their expedition they discovered Newfound- 
land, and traced the continent from latitude 45 to 38, land- 
ing at many places, and trading with the Indians. On 
their return to England Cabot was rewarded with a pen- 
sion of one hundred and twenty pounds per annum. There 
is, in the Herald's office in London, a petition from a gen- 
tleman whose name was Strickland, who seems to have 
commanded one of the vessels that sailed with Cabot. The 
petitioner refers to the pension that Cabot received for his 
services, a pension that he needed, for he was poor. He 
claims no pension for himself, being in affluent circum- 
stances, but he prays that his Majesty would give him some 
mark of royal favour, by suffering him to wear for the 
crest of his arms, " a Turkey, the bird that we imported 
from America." That very gentleman was the ancestor 
of Sir George Strickland, Bart, of Yorkshire, who wears 
a turkey for the crest of his arms. I did not copy this ex- 
tract from the record, but received it from a gentleman 
whose veracity I could not question. 



C 40 ) 



and colour by the change of food, habits, 
and climate, full as much as the human race 
are observed to differ from one another, 
without giving rise to any doubts concerning 
the family from which they sprang. 

The chief difference between the men of 
Africa, in latitude five, and the men of Eu- 
rope, in latitude fifty, is, that one is black and 
the other is white, these colours being per- 
fectly opposite; for the circumstances of 
frizzled hair or long hair, flat nose or high 
nose, thick lips or thin lips, seem to be ex- 
ceedingly variable. Some black men have 
one feature, and some the other. Brown 
northern men are equally distinguished, as 
black Nigritians, by the flat nose and thick 
hps. Features may be altered by care or the 
want of care, but it would be difficult to 
make a black man white. The nose may 
be depressed in infancy, from a perverse idea 
of beauty; and the nose being depressed by 
any means, accident or design, the flat nose 
may become a family feature. I have seen 
a family of dogs, in Carolina, continue for 
three or four generations without tails, be- 
cause one of their ancestors had lost her tail 
by some accident. In Amboina there is a 



( 41 ) 



family of cats with stumpy tails, and dogs 
in Persia without tails.* The Houzouans, 
in Cafraria, a dark coloured tribe, whose 
noses are flat, regarded Vaillant as deformed 
and monstrous, because he had the common 
European nose.-f- The flat nose and thick 
lips are best adapted to a cold climate, where- 
fore thev should be considered as natural 
features in high latitudes. The thin lip and 
prominent nose are more subject to injury 
from extreme cold. 

Nature :£ fits man and beast to the climate, 

* Pallas. t Vaillant's Travels. 

4 In the course of this dissertation I shall have frequent 
occasions to speak of the operations or the powers of na- 
ture. When I use the word nature, I would not be. sup- 
posed to mean that visionary, undefined, inexplicable 
something, to which moderns often refer, which is not a 
deity as they allege, though it has the power and attributes 
of a deity. By the word nature, I mean the course of ac- 
tion, or the general laws by which the Supreme Being is 
pleased to act upon material bodies. A watery surface is 
warmed by the sun. Vapours ascend by heat. Those va- 
pours, in the upper and colder regions, are changed into 
rain; that rain promotes the growth of plants, and those 
plants bear fruit. Such are the operations of nature ; or, 
to speak more correctly, such is the regular process by 
which the Maker of all things is pleased to provide for the 
support of man and beast. Material bodies, as such, have 
no power except the simple vis inertiae, the power of re- 

7 



( M ) 



In warm climates, a great proportion of the 
blacks have thin lips and the Roman nose. 
The difference of feature in the blacks of 
Nigritia, from those of Asia, may possibly 
be accidental and hereditary, though it ra- 
ther appears to be the effect of a climate 
that is hostile to civilization. The African, 
with a flat nose, thick lips, arched shins, and 
large hips, in a few generations, after he is 
removed to a better climate, and has been 
accustomed to sit, and dress, and feed like 
civilized people, is observed to alter greatly 
in his shape and features.* The black in- 
habitants of India, who differ so much in 
shape and features from those of Guinea, 
whose climate is also different, have formerly- 
been a polished nation. Their manners are 
gentle. 

All the changes that have been made in 
the human species; all the difference in co- 
lour, shape, and feature that has been ob- 

sistance. Every motion is performed, every thing is done 
in the material world, by the constant, universal agency of 
the God of nature, who is every where present always. 

* This is very observable in the Negroes on Long- 
Island, whose ancestors were imported, by the original 
Dutch colonists, above one hundred years ago. 



C 43 ) 



served between one man and another, may 
doubtless be produced by climate, food, and 
education or habits. When we suppose that 
a white skin may become black; that a 
graceful, tall figure may become short and 
clumsy; or that soft, pleasing features may 
become hard and disgusting; we may seem 
to speak of events that are beyond the power, 
or the common operations of nature; be- 
cause in this case we view the extremes. 
But we should consider that nature does not 
produce those changes by sudden leaps. She 
passes from one extreme to the other by 
short steps, and by shades that are hardly 
perceptible; as darkness takes the place of 
light, and summer is followed by winter, 
Although the mind cannot embrace, at a 
single view, the whole progress, from one 
extreme to the other, every observant person 
must have noted many of the steps by which 
a change in colour, shape, and features is 
effected; and he must have discovered that 
such alterations are produced by climate, 
food, or sentiment. If small changes have 
been effected, in a short time, by slight 
causes, we naturally infer, that great changes 
may be effected, in a long series of years, 



( 44 ) 



by powerful causes. We observe that the 
complexion is soon altered by the weather 
and climate. The finest skin, by a few 
months residence in the West-Indies, and 
frequent exposure to the sun and wind, be- 
comes almost brown. If such are the effects 
of climate alone, upon the colour, in a few 
months, the effects of many ages must be 
great upon men who live, almost naked, 
under a scorching sun; and upon men who 
darken the skin by paints and grease. A 
considerable length of time is required to 
alter the shape and size of the human race; 
but we see that different countries produce 
men of the same colour, who differ very 
much from one another in size. We know 
that men are affected, like other animals, 
by food, climate, and the mode of living. 
We observe that other animals are large or 
small, active or clumsy, according as they 
are well or ill fed, as they are kept warm or 
exposed to a rigorous climate; from which 
we can readily perceive that the shape and 
size of the human race must be greatly .af- 
fected, by difference in climate, habitation, 
dress, and food. There is a great difference 
between the features of a savage African* or 



( 45 ) 

Laplander, and those of a civilized Euro- 
pean. Part of that difference may be acci= 
dental, but the whole of it may be the ef- 
fect of climate, or it may be partly effected 
by sentiment and habits. The prevailing 
passions, and common train of ideas, never 
fail to make a strong impression on the coun- 
tenance, and to modify the- features. Every 
person accustomed to read the countenance, 
can instantly distinguish- a man or woman, 
of a benevolent and sweet temper, from one 
that is passionate, sulky, or vindictive. This, 
like all other knowledge, is acquired by at- 
tention and study. The shepherd who is 
accustomed to looking at his sheep, can dis- 
tinguish the individuals of a large flock by 
their features; to other men they are nearly 
alike. Nature writes, in strong characters, 
on the human countenance; it is our fault 
if we do not read. How great is the differ- 
ence between the features of a melancholy 
and a frantic madman? If such difference 
can be effected, in a few months, by op- 
posite passions, it will follow, that passions 
which follow us from infant life, and grow 
with our growth, must be clearly marked in 
the features. Too much care, or too little 



( ^ ) 



care; intense thinking, or the want -of 
thought, are equally legible in the face. 
There are certain opinions and customs pe- 
culiar to every nation. The different desires 
or passions that arise from such diversity of 
opinions, produce what is called the national 
feature. Every man observes that the Eng- 
lish face differs from the Scots face. He ob- 
serves also that the French, the Spanish, the 
German, and the Polish faces differ from one 
another and from the English face. People 
of the same nation and country, when they 
belong to different religious sects, may again 
be distinguished, in many cases, from one 
another. The Moravians, and some other 
sects, whose tempers are regulated; who are 
in the habit of controlling their passions; who 
do not riot, swear, get drunk, and, Centaur 
like, suffer the beast to run away with the 
man, may be distinguished by their coun- 
tenance. Monks and nuns, in a short time, 
acquire the monastic countenance, and may 
be distinguished from other subjects of the 
same nation. I have said nothing of the 
Jews, who have ancestral features, and whose 
difference in food and sentiment, for many 
ages, have marked them with strong charac- 



( 47 ) 



ters. If the passions, opinions, and national 
habits are marked in the countenance, and 
affect the features of people, who live in the 
same climate; whose clothing, food, infor- 
mation, and manners are nearly alike; how 
great a difference, in countenance and fea- 
tures, may we expect to find among people, 
who, for many ages, have differed from one 
another, in every thing wherein men can 
differ? 

The great distinction between the ex- 
tremes of men seems to rest in the colour of 
the skin; for their internal structure is not 
different.* The white man and the black 

* I am not inattentive to the observations of Mr. Charles 
White, of Manchester, who attempts to prove, in his 
« Gradations in Man," from the structure of their respec- 
tive bodies, that the black man of Africa is of a different 
species from the white man of Europe. According to his 
philosophy, the sable inhabitant of Negritia is not called 
man with so much propriety as a goat may be called a 
sheep. He stands upon one of the steps between the man 
of Europe and the monkey of Asia, being somewhat su- 
perior to the ourang outang. Let us examine the chief 
arguments by which this curious hypothesis is supported. 

1. Some Negroes have six lumbar vertebras instead of 
&ve, the usual number in white men. 

2. Some Negroes have eight long ribs, or true ribs, in- 
stead of seven, the usual number in white men. 

3. The fore arm of a Negro, compared with the os 



( *s ) 



man are perfectly alike in the situation, num- 
ber and proportion of the internal parts, with 

humeri or upper arm, has been found to be an inch longer 
than the fore arm of Europeans of the same stature. 

4. The bones of a Negro's leg are gibbous. 

5 The massater muscles of a Negro are stronger than 
those of a v/hite man, wherefore he seems to have been 
formed for living upon vegetables. 

6. The senses of hearing, seeing, and smelling in Ne- 
groes is stronger than in Europeans, as also the memory. 

7. The Negro is short-lived. 

8. The Negro does not sweat. 

9. Mulattoes, the offspring of Europeans and Negroes, 
are mules. They are not prolific. 

To the first, second, third, and fourth of these distinc- 
tions it may be replied, that some white men, as well as 
Negroes, have six lumbar vertebrae instead of five, and 
some have eight true ribs instead of seven. -Neither is 
the proportion between the length of the upper and lower 
arm, or the length of the leg and thigh bone, alike in'all 
Negroes, nor in all white men. The parent from whom 
the chief family of the Negroes sprang may have differed 
in some particulars, as white men frequently differ from 
the common standard ; and the food, the climate, or the 
mode of sitting or resting, would naturally alter the size 
of particular muscles, and the shape of the leg. These 
distinctions disappear by the change of manners and cli- 
mate. 

It will not be disputed that the sense of seeing, hearing, 
and smelling, is stronger in many cases among the Ne- ' 
groes, than it usually is among civilized Europeans; but 
it must also be admitted that the Tartars of Europe and 

Asia, the Indians of America, and all other savage nations. 



( 49 ) 



such exceptions only as appear among inch 

enjoy those senses in equal perfection with the savage of 
Guinea, for those people strengthen the senses by using 
them; thus blind men have the sense of feeling more cor- 
rect than other people, 

The seventh, eighth, and ninth distinctions were cer- 
tainly advanced by Mr. White upon bad authority, for they 
are not supported by correct observation. It is well known 
in the West-Indies that truth is on the other side. 

After following Mr, White through his anatomical ob- 
servations, it may not be improper to pay some attention 
to another anatomical discovery, that is deemed, by its 
patrons, to be fatal to the Mosaic history. The weight of 
the discovery rests upon what is called, the facial angle ; 
or the angle that is included between two lines, one of 
them extending from the ear to the lower part of the 
upper jaw; the other line extending from this part up- 
wards along the forehead. It is observed, that the facial 
angle, in the head of a white man, usually includes about 
80 degrees; in the Negro it includes 70 degrees* in 
the ourang outang it includes 58 degrees; in a fox it is 
much smaller. According to those measurements, the 
Negro excels the ourang outang very little more than the 
white man excels the Negro. In other words, two men 
who are both possessed of reason and speech, differ little 
more from one another than one of those men differs from 
a brute without reason or speech. Can this be deemed 
correct reasoning? If the greater facial angle may be 
supposed to mark a superior order of beings, it will fol- 
low, that the ancient Grecians were of an order superior 
to the present Europeans ; for their skulls measure an an- 
gle of 90 degrees. Is that race of men extinct ? Or is it 
not more probable that the shape of the head, by differed 
modes of dressing, and other causes, is altered ? 

8 



( 50 ) 



viduals of the same nation; the whole dif- 
ference is in the skin, or rather it is placed 
upon the skin. The flesh of the human 
body has three coverings. The first, or 
thickest, is called the skin; the second, that 
lies upon the skin, is a thin net-like cover- 
ing, called the reticular membrane ; and the 
third covering, or the outer, thin, pellucid 
covering, is called the epidermis or scarf 
skin. The colour is deposited without the 
skin: it rests in the mucus that is lodged 
in the reticular membrane. This mucus, 
though it is not oily, does not easily mix 
with water; and it is rather more tough in 
blacks than the colourless mucus of white 
people. The skin is supplied with arteries, 
veins, lymphatics, and nervous papillae, for 
the purpose of feeling. Those papillae are 
protected by the fine scarf skin, which is 
without vessels or feeling; but this skin 
would have become too dry if it had not 
been constantly softened by the mucus that 
is lodged in the reticular membrane, and is 
secreted by the vessels of the skin. In dif- 
ferent parts of the body this mucus is more 
or less pellucid; even in white people, where 
much is required, as under the arms, it h 



( 51 ) 



of a dark colour. When the skin of an 
African has been burnt, the new skin, be- 
ing disordered, does not secrete a dark mu- 
cus, and the part is no longer black. As 
the use of the reticular membrane is to keep 
the nervous papilla?, on which feeling de- 
pends, soft and moist, it will follow, that 
the greater power the air or sun has, in any 
climate, to harden or dry the skin, the 
thicker the reticulum and mucus substance 
should be. Happily, the causes which re- 
quire such greater defence seem also to ope- 
rate in preparing that defence by promoting 
the secretions. Heat relaxes the skin, en- 
larges the pores, diverts the fluids to the 
periphery, and diminishes all the secretions, 
except the cutaneous. Thus men, in warm 
climates, became black; and the colour once 
induced becomes hereditary. Such are the 
natural effects of climate in colouring the 
skin. Certain habits of living have similar 
effects, Men who feed much upon onions, 
garlick, and leeks; those also who use many 
aromatics, are of a dark colour. Jews, who 
differ from other people in many articles of 
food, often differ in complexion from the 
nation among whom they live, It has al- 



ready been observed that men and beasts are 
fitted to the climate. The bear, who is black 
in warmer climates, becomes white in Sibe- 
ria; and so does the fox, squirrel, hare, and 
wolf. Some black foxes there are in high 
latitudes; but their fur is remarkably thick, 
and they are obliged to live chiefly in ca- 
verns. The very flowers that appear in cold 
seasons, or cold places, are usually white; 
as the snow-drop, narcissus, hyacinth, and 
lily of the valley, which come early in the 
spring. Flowers, on the contrary, that blow 
in warm seasons, are usually of a dark co- 
lour, blue, purple, or red, that are not greatly 
heated by reflecting much light. The 
changes in colour that we observe in animaJs, 
from grey, brown, or black, to perfect white, 
do not happen by accident; they are uni- 
form and constant, for nature does nothing in 
vain. She causes animals to become white 
in cold climates, because they have most 
occasion for heat; or, to speak more correct- 
ly, because they are in danger of suffering 
by cold. We formerly had occasion to ob- 
serve, and the observation is supported by 
many experiments, that black substances are 
the best conductors of heat: or, in other 



I 53 ) 

words, any substance that is black will be 
found to transmit heat much sooner than a 
white substance, composed of similar mate- 
rials. Now it is to be observed, that animals 
of every kind, biped and quadruped, are 
furnished by nature with a sufficient supply 
of heat for all the purposes of life. A small 
deduction of heat is always agreeable to 
them;* in other words, they prefer an at- 
mosphere that is colder than the blood. f 

* The heat of our blood, in perfect health, is 98 degrees, 
fcut we prefer an atmosphere that is at least 20 degrees 
colder. 

t To explain the cause of animal heat has ever been ac- 
counted a difficult theorem. It may be admitted, in gene- 
ral, that animal heat depends on respiration. The blood 
of animals in health, is more or less warm, according to 
the capacity of their lungs, when compared with the size 
of their respective bodies. The fish, that uses little air in 
breathing, has cold blood when compared with terrestrial 
animals. The hawk, and other birds of great flight, that 
have large lungs, have the warmest blood. We have the 
power of increasing the heat of our blood by exercise, or 
any other means by which respiration is quickened. The 
common air, in which we breath, is composed of two kinds 
of fluids, called gas. One is called oxygen, the other 
azotic gas. The quantity of azote is to the oxygen nearly 
as three to one; but the oxygen gas alone is useful in res- 
piration, therefore it is called vital air. It is known that 
any given quantity of common air being breathed in, for a 
certain time, becomes useless. An animal can live in it 



( 9i ) 



Animals suffer, in cold climates, not by any 
defect in the source of natural heat, but by 

no longer, for the vital part, or the oxygen, is consumed. 
This change, in the composition of the atmosphere, could 
not be effected except by what is called elective attrac- 
tion, by which the original texture of every particle of 
air is destroyed. The air, in passing through the lungs, 
finds some other substance to which the oxygen or vital 
part adheres more strongly than it adhered to the azotic 
gas; by such adherence, a new composition, or a new body 
is formed, and the oxygen gas ceases to be fit for respiration. 
It cannot be necessary to explain what the substance is to 
which the oxygen gas adheres ; viz. the substance thus de- 
tached from the blood by the medium of the lungs. It has 
been called the carbonaceous principle. It must be some- 
thing that would destroy the system if it was retained ; 
some noxious matter. Whatever it may be, the conclusion 
is the same. We discover that new combinations and 
decompositions are formed in the lungs by every act of 
breathing. In this case there is a chemical mixture, and 
heat is uniformly generated by all such mixtures. I for- 
merly ventured an opinion that heat, which arises from 
chemical mixtures, is caused by the increased vibratory 
motion of the parts in the act of forming new combina- 
tions ; but this phenomenon is otherwise explained, by 
alleging that all fluids contain much latent heat; that 
the new composition formed in the lungs is fixed air; that 
fixed air contains less absolute heat than vital air, where- 
fore the vital air, when the new composition is formed, 
deposits part of its heat, or communicates that heat to the 
blood, where it becomes sensible. This theory is plausi= 
ble, though there be experiments which render the doc- 
trine of latent heat questionable. Whatever the 'cause 
may be, the effect is uniform and certain. 



( ss ) 



the loss of heat which is absorbed and re- 
moved by the cold external air. Clothes 
are not worn in cold weather to make us 
warm, but to prevent us from becoming 
cold. They are worn to prevent the escape 
of natural heat. We suffer most in cold 
weather, when we are clothed with porous 
garments, that readily transmit the particles 
of air, or suffer them to enter; for every 
particle of cold air absorbs and removes a 
portion of native heat. We also suffer when 
we are clothed with garments that are good 
conductors of heat, and thereby suffer it to 
escape. The white covering of a bear is not 
a good conductor; it does not suffer the in- 
ternal heat to escape with the same facility 
that it would escape through a black cover- 
ing; for this reason bears have white hair in 
cold climates. Silk and wool, being animal 
substances, are not good conductors of heat, 
therefore garments of white silk or wool are 
warmer coverings in the shade, than black 
garments of similar materials; but black gar- 
ments under a warm sun transmit too much 
heat. The body should be protected by 
white garments under a warm sun, because 
white reflects the light, and prevents rocv 



( 56 J 



great an increase of heat upon the skirt* 
But the case is different when it refers to 
the colour of the skin. White is not a pro- 
per colour for the skin in a warm climate, 
because a white skin, when' exposed to the 
sun, reflects the light; in which case the 
surface is heated by resistance, or by the ac- 
tion of light upon the white skin, and the 
perspiration is checked. In such a climate, 
white men cannot preserve their health. A 
black skin is fitted to a hot climate, for it 
transmits the light, so that the surface is not 
heated by reaction, or by reflecting the light. 
In this case a copious perspiration is conti- 
nued, and cold is generated; or, to speak 
more correctly, much heat is carried off by 
the perspirable fluids. 

In all cases the effect of climate is to fit 
animals and vegetables, so far as they are ca- 
pable of change, to the temperature in which 
they are placed. The different kinds of 
grain are fitted to the climates in which they 
grow. Indian corn ripens slowly in Caro- 
lina, where the summers are long; it ripens 
quickly in Canada, where the summers are 
short; but Canada corn, planted in Carolina- 
in a few years changes its quality. The 



( 57 ) 



stalks are short in Canada, that the ears may 
be near the warm surface^ but in Carolina 
the stalks are tall, and the ears are long in 
ripening. In a hot climate, man becomes 
black, because black is the colour best fitted 
to that temperature; and it is obvious, to 
daily observation, that a warm sun tends to 
darken the skin. A warm climate takes the 
wool from the sheep, lest it should suffer by 
the heat, and a cold climate gives a shaggy 
Covering to a horse, lest he should suffer by 
the cold. In the highest latitudes, the cli- 
mate gives a white covering to quadrupeds, 
that they may the better retain their natural 
portion of heat. Upon a general view of 
the natives of warm climates, we observe 
that their external appearance corresponds 
with the obvious blackening cause. The 
colours of men are affected by sun, wind, 
rain, exhalations from the earth, seas, rivers, 
and lakes; by their habitations, clothing, 
bathing, unctions, and by sundry internal 
causes, as the state of the fluids, secretions, 
and aliments. There may also be other 
causes of which we have not any knowledge, 
In the Peninsula of India, in most of the 
adjacent islands, and on the eastern coast of 

Q 



( 58 ) 

Africa, where the heat is tempered by va- 
riable winds, or by exhalations from the sea,, 
the black natives have long hair, not frizzled; 
or their colour is less dark, or their perspi- 
ration is less copious. The inhabitants of 
Siera Leona, Angola, and the several inter- 
mediate states, live in a hot climate; they 
are less civilized than the black Asiatics; 
more exposed to the sun, and more involved 
in dirt and grease. These are blackening 
causes, but the great and most essential dif- 
ference remains. They are constantly ex- 
posed to winds that originate in the most 
barren, parched, and inhospitable part of 
the globe. From an ocean of sand, from a 
burning desert, in which a lizard or a ser- 
pent can hardly subsist, the trade wind passe? 
to the dusky Africans; it serves them indeed 
for the purpose of respiration, but their ex- 
ternal appearance must be greatly affected 
by an atmosphere loaded with such exhala- 
tions. If the harmantan winds that rise in 
the same deserts, are so deeply charged with 
noxious vapours as to cause the green leaves 
of vegetables to perish, we cannot be sur- 
prised that the ordinary winds should darken 
the human skin. Bv such exhalations the 



{ 59 ) 



hair is crisped, so as to resemble wool. This 
change in the hair, like the change of co- 
lour, is of considerable use to the subject, 
for, like a screen, it protects his head from 
the vertical sun. 

We see the changes that are produced by 
warm climates, and we discover in some 
cases, the reason why such changes are ne- 
cessary or useful; but the method by which 
they are effected is beyond our reach. Per- 
haps the cutaneous secretions, which are 
very copious and useful to the sable African, 
may cause him to have a short, slender, and 
frizzled covering to his head instead of hair. 
His wool is small at the roots; it does not re- 
ceive much nourishment from the skin, and 
we know that long hair requires a large sup- 
ply; for there are many people whose bo- 
dily strength is much impaired by the ex- 
traordinary length of their hair. The fluids, 
taking a different course in the dusky Afri- 
cans, their hair cannot thrive. In all eases 
where the hair is woolly, the perspiration is 
copious and offensive; but the secretions 
from the skins of black Asiatics, who have 
long hair, is not equally gross. 

If we trace the nations who inhabit the 



( 60 ) 



old continent through their various migra- 
tions, we shall find indisputable proofs that 
men change their colour with their cli- 
mate; becoming darker or less dark, ac- 
cording as they move to a warmer or a 
colder climate. As men live with most ease 
in warm climates, they seldom migrate to 
those which are colder, therefore the ex- 
amples of a whitening process are not very 
frequent; but there are some indisputable 
cases. The inhabitants of Denmark are 
generally fair, with blue eyes. The inha- 
bitants of Bohemia, Poland, and Russia, are 
brown, with dark eyes, though some of 
them live in a higher latitude; but these 
nations are descended from the Medes, who 
lived formerly in the vicinity of Persia, a 
warm country, and they migrated long after 
the Goths and the other Teutonic tribes, by 
whom Denmark was peopled. The Danes, 
by longer residence in their present country, 
have acquired a fine complexion, and their 
hair has lost its blackness. 

Instances present themselves every where 
of migrations to a warmer climate, and the 
consequent changes of colour and features 
have never been questioned, The fair and 



( 61 ) 



fleshy northern conquerors, who fixed their 
habitations in France, Spain, and Italy, have 
now acquired the darker complexion, and 
more slender form of the countries to which 
they came. The Moguls, who invaded In- 
dostan, and settled there, have acquired the 
darker complexion, the figure, and features of 
the people they supplanted; they are nearly 
black. The Jews, who do not intermarry 
with other people, and whose food, in many 
articles, differs from that of other nations, 
have settled in every climate that is not very 
cold, and among nations of every colour, 
but they change their complexion in every 
case, and acquire some likeness in colour, 
form, and features to the people among 
whom they live. A colony of Portuguese, 
who settled at Mitamba, in Africa, are be- 
come black, with crisped hair; they are 
only distinguished by their language from 
the aborigines.* The descendants of French 
and English families, who have lived two 
or three generations in the West-Indies, are 
tending fast towards the complexion of the 
original inhabitants. Under all the benefits 



* Account of the Trade of Great-Britain with Africa.- 



of care and cultivation, they are not of the 
same colour with the people from whom 
they sprang. The Chinese and Arabs pos- 
sess a greater variety of climate than any 
other nation, and they have lived longer 
unmixed in the same country. Each of 
those nations is certainly descended from a 
particular stock, and yet we find, that by 
moving to the northward or the south- 
ward, the Chinese and Arabs change their 
colour. The shades or tints of the skin, in 
each nation, change, by insensible grades, 
from brunets, nearly white, to a tawney co- 
lour, nearly black, according to the climate. 
The blackening process in some of the Ma- 
lacca or Philippine islands, is very observ- 
able. These islands must have been settled 
from the continent by tawney or brown peo- 
ple. In the process of time they became 
black in that scorching climate, and their 
heads were covered by something like wool 
instead of hair. The Malays, not many 
centuries ago, invaded those islands, and 
extirpated the original inhabitants, or drove 
them to the mountains; hence it followed, 
that when the Europeans lately discovered 
these islands, they found, near the coast, a 



( S3 ) 



tawney race of men, almost black, with 
long hair; but in the mountains they found 
a darker coloured race, with frizzled hair, 
speaking a different language. 

We have seen instances of men with a 
tawney skin, from a warm climate, becoming 
fair by living in a higher latitude, and we 
are assured that whole nations have im- 
proved their complexion by a similar change 
of climate; but the cases are few, if any, 
in which we are credibly informed that a 
race of men perfectly black have become 
white again. This process, as I conceive*, 
would require much longer time than is ne- 
cessary to effect the opposite change. It is 
nevertheless apparent that such a process is 
within the powers of climate. The Hot- 
tentots must have come from a warm cli- 
mate, from the torrid zone, where the in- 
habitants are black; but the Hottentots are 
not black at present. By living in a higher 
latitude, near the Cape of Good-Hope, they 
have changed their complexion. When 
rescued from grease and dirt, their skin is 
swarthy or brown. If it should be alleged 
that those rude unlettered people migrated 
from the tropical regions, before the\ ? had 



( 04* } 



become perfectly black, an event that is not' 
improbable, still the position is equally clear, 
that colour is the effect of climate, since 
other men who continued there are black. 

To the numerous cases that have been 
stated, in which men have changed their co- 
lour by a change of climate, I shall add a 
remarkable discovery lately made in the 
East-Indies. 

In the year 1805, Dr. Buchannan and Df„ 
Kerr, gentlemen of great learning and in- 
tegrity, were appointed by the governors of 
Bengal and Madrass, to examine the state of 
the Christian churches in Hindostan. The 
researches of those gentlemen were chiefly 
confined to that tract of country which lies 
between the western coast of the Peninsula 
and the Gants, a ridge of mountains that 
runs parallel with the coast, and is seldom 
more than sixty or eighty miles from the 
sea, including the kingdoms of Coch in and 
Travancoure. Those gentlemen report that 
the number of professed Christians on that 
coast exceeds 200,000. But they found, in 
the same country, many synagogues of Jews. 
Some of those Israelites or Jews are white; 
others of them are black. The white Jews 



( <*f ) 

live near the coast. The black Jews live af 
some distance from the coast; near the 
mountains or among them. The white 
Jews are counted enemies to the black Jews. 
It is established by tradition and by the con- 
curring evidence of authentic records, thai 
the black Jews had settled in India long be- 
fore the Ghristian era. It is also admitted 
that they settled there before the white Jews; 
and the station they occupy is a sufficient 
evidence of the fact. 'Those synagogues of 
black men, call themselves Beni Israel, or 
Israelites. They should not be called Jews, 
for that appellation belongs only to the tribe 
of Judah. The white Jews have no ancient 
historical records nor manuscripts among 
them. But the black Jews have copies of 
the law in their record chests. Some of 
those copies are very ancient, and written in 
a character that resembles the Palmyrene 
Hebrew. The reader will recollect that the 
ten tribes, who were not properly called 
Jews, were carried into captivity above seven 
hundred years before the Christian era, 
Reuben, Gad, and Menassah, had been car- 
ried into slavery before the siege of Sama- 
ria, But the siege of that city lasted three 

19 



I fi i 



years. It is not improbable that some of the 
Israelites, during that siege, made their es- 
cape to India, by way of the Red Sea, In 
whatever manner they may have travelled, 
it is fully established that many synagogues 
of the Hebrews, commonly called Jews* 
were established in India above 2000 years 
ago. The white Jews belong to a later 
colony. They probably wandered from a 
higher latitude, long after the destruction 
of Jerusalem; and being of the tribe of 
Judah, or Idumean proselytes, the ancient 
enmity subsists between them and the Israel- 
ites. Be this as it may, it is fully established,, 
that by living in India, 2000 years or more* 
near the tenth degree of latitude, a detach- 
ment from a white nation are become black. 
If this shall not be taken for a proof that 
dimate blackens the skin, all reasoning on 
the subject is useless. 

Upon the whole, we observe a regular 
systematical change in the colour, shape, 
and features of men, to the north and the 
south, Fr6m the climate of a fair skin, fine, 
shape, and pleasing feature, going to the 
northward, the skin becomes of a blackish 
brown, the figure clumsy, and the features 



( m I 



coarse. Going to the southward, in the 
same manner, we alter the complexion; 
shape and features, until the skin becomes 
perfectly black, the shape in some countries 
less graceful, and the features coarse: the 
colour being altered, according to the soil, 
situation and climate, by the most regular 
and insensible deviations and shades. 

Those facts being considered ; it being al- 
so observed, that every change is most proper 
and best adopted to the climate, or that it is 
the natural effect of such climate, there can 
be no moral or physical proposition more 
certain than that all those people are de- 
scended from the same family. 

The philosophers, who discovered several 
races of men on the old continent, have not 
failed to plant a new and distinct race of 
men in America. In support of this opi- 
nion, they allege, that the American Indians 
do not differ from one another in colour, 
like the inhabitants of the other continent:* 
their colour also is different from that of any 
other people: that the American has no 
beard; that he is more frigid, more weak and 

•* Raynal's Phih and Folk, Hist, 



( 08 | 



more cowardly than the inhabitants of the 
old continent. 

This humble and subordinate character of 
the American savage has not always been 
urged, as a direct proof that he belongs to a 
separate race of men, for it has occasionally 
been advanced in the pride of country ; a 
species of pride that will not suffer children 
to equal their ancestors ; that makes it im- 
possible for them to obtain such equality, 
because there is something in America, as 
they allege, " that is less favourable to the 
strength and perfection of animal creation/* 

The complexion of the American savage^ 
or the sameness qf colour that is observed 
among those people, forms the most remark- 
able trait in their character. When we ob- 
serve, in the old continent, all the varieties 
of shades, from perfect white to perfect 
black, we are naturally surprised that in the 
new world, which extends to a higher de- 
gree of north and south latitude, including 
every habitable region, there should not be 
a black man, nor one, as it has been alleged, 
who is perfectly white. The natives are ge- 
nerally of a reddish brown. Their colour 
seems to be a mixture of white and black.. 



( «■ 3 



reddened by paint, or by the blood appear* 
ing through the skin, which is not thick^ 
This again receives a brownish cast by more 
Or less exposure to the weather. 

On the whole continent of America, there 
is not a black Indian, nor is there a spot for 
which a black skin is required. No winds 
prevail in America that rise on a hot surface 
or a sandy desert; nor is there any large 
tract, within the tropics, that is remarkably 
hot. The greater part of this continent is. 
divided by a long chain of mountains, thai; 
extends from north to south. These moun- 
tains, the highest in the world, have an as- 
tonishing effect upon the climate, on both 
sides of the continent. They lie across the 
trade winds, and cut them off; for they rise 
above the winds. They are generally distant 
about seventy or eighty miles from the Pa- 
cific Ocean, within the tropics; but the whole 
space between those mountains and the Pa- 
cific Ocean, is so far from being parched by 
a hot vertical sun, that the inhabitants enjoy 
the most pleasing temperature. There is a 
sandy desert, nearly one hundred miles in 
extent, between Sachara and Lima, about 
the seventh degree of south latitude. Such 



m expanse of dry sand, under a vertical mti n 
in any part of the other continent, would 
produce great heat, and give a sable colour- 
ing to the people in its vicinity. But in the 
province of Lima, it can produce no such 
eifect, because the wind in those regions, 
ought to blow from the east; but there are 
mountains in that direction, at no great dis- 
tance, covered with perpetual snow. 

The trade winds to the eastward of the 
Andes, are checked by those mountains; 
there they deposit all the water with which 
they had been charged. The quantity of 
rain in that region being great, the process 
of evaporation must also be great, whereby 
the heat of the atmosphere is moderated. A 
reddish brown, with a tawny cast, is the 
darkest colour that can be expected in such 
a climate. America, on both sides of the 
Andes, above the tropics, should produce, 
as in some parts of the old continent, in si- 
milar latitudes, a brown or dusky race of 
men, until we reach a high degree of lati- 
tude; and it is very questionable, whether a 
race of men, perfectly fair, will ever be found 
to preserve that complexion for many ages, 
in any part of America, to the eastward of 



(. 71 Jf 

the Cordilleras; except in high latitudes, and 
near the coast. There are not any people* 
on the old continent, perfectly fair, except 
those who live in high latitudes, where the. 
westerly winds come from the sea, at no 
great distance, so tempered as not to be very 
sharp nor very dry. This rule applies to 
Great-Britain and Ireland, to the Germans, 
Danes, Swedes, and Circassians;* but going 
to the eastward in the same latitude, as we de«^ 
part from the ocean or the Black Sea, having 
more dry land to the windward, by which 
the air is charged with sundry exhalations, 
the skin changes its colour; it ceases to be 
perfectly fair. There is not, in the eastern 
part of Asia, between the extremes of heat 
and cold, a nation perfectly fair. The best 
complexions are found near the head of the 
Ganges, among the mountains of Thibet. 
We may discover a concurrence of circum- 
stances, in the British Isles, and near the 
German Ocean, not found in many other 
places, which are necessary to a fair skin. 
They are little exposed to the warm sun: 

* London in latitude 51°, Prague 50°, Copenhagen 55 V 
Circassia 45°, having the Black Sea, and the Sea of Asoph* 
to the south-west, and north-west. 



{ 12 } 

they have little intense cold, and their winds 
usually come from a watery surface. Their 
westerly winds are from the ocean, and their 
atmosphere is loaded with moisture. They 
have not much rain, but their showers 
are of long continuance; they have much 
dark cloudy weather, and the rays of the 
sun are feeble when he visits the inhabitants. 
They never experience that warm clear sun, 
which freckles or tans the skin; nor those 
long intense colds, which injure the cuta- 
neous nerves, and produce a reddish brown. 
While America remained a great forest, in- 
habited by savages, under the constant do- 
minion of westerly winds, there was not any 
climate on the eastern coast, in which wc 
could expect a fair skin. By the progress 
of cultivation, the general course of the 
winds is materially affected, in the middle 
and northern States; and in the process of 
time, we may expect such a prevalence of 
easterly winds,* near the coast, in those 
States, as shall prevent that tendency of com- 
plexion to the clear brunet, which prevails 
in temperate climates, in other parts of the 
world. 



* See proofs and explanations, A. 



( *« ) 



Although no part of America is fitted to 
the production of a black skin, nor would 
many parts of this continent be expected to 
produce a skin perfectly fair, among the ori- 
ginal inhabitants; we are not to believe, as 
some writers have alleged, that the Ameri- 
can Indians are all of one colour. Their skin 
is tinged w r ith a variety of shades between 
white and black; but there are Indians, as 
we are told, above the latitude of 45 degrees 
north, who are nearly white; and there are 
Indians in Guiana and Brazil, at a distance 
from the coast, whose skins are very dark. 
I was informed by the Little Turtle, who is 
a chief of the Miami tribe of the lakes, and 
has an extensive acquaintance with the In- 
dians, that the northern Indians are much 
fairer than those who live in warm climates; 
except that Indians, who live near the lakes, 
and are much exposed to the sun, in fishing 
,and swimming, have darker skins than other 
northern Indians. He understands that In- 
dians who live northward from the sources of 
the Mississippi, are fairer than those of his own 
nation, who live in the opposite direction. 

The Indians at Matagrassa, as we are told 
by Condamire, are of different shades, ac.- 

11 



( <4 } 



cording to the elevation of the country, some 
of them being almost fair.* The testimony 
of Molina is also very explicit on this sub- 
ject. " The natives of Chili form but one 
" nation, that is divided into various tribes. 
" who have a similar physiognomy, and 
" speak the same tongue, which may be 
" called the Chilese language. It is soft. 
" harmonious, regular, and abounding in 
" words, that in all cases are fit to express, 
" not only physical but moral and abstract 
" ideas. Those people are of a brown cop* 
pery colour; but the Boroani, who are 
" situated in the centre of the province of 

* Voyage de Condamire. 

" Los nativos Chilenos forman una sola nacion dividida 

* en varias tribus, todas las qnales tienen una misma fiso- 

• nomia y una misma lengua, que ellas llamen Chilidugr 
" que quiere dicer lengua Chilenay la quales dulce, armo* 
u nTosa regular, expresiva, y muy abundante de terminos 
w optos e iddneos para expresar no solamente las casas fis- 
w cias generates o particulares sino tambien las casas mora- 
les y abstractes. La carnacion de estos pueblos es de un 

" color pardo bermejo que tira a cobro ; Pero las Boroanos 
' situades en el centro de las provincias de Arauco por los 
39 grados delatitud austral son blancos y encarnadas, y 
^ tienen los ojos azules y los cabelloa rubios como los Eu- 
" ropeos que nacen en medio de la zana templada Septen- 
" trion .al; y sus fac clones son regulares y aun. en. algunos 
• 4 hermosas". 



( 75 ) 



" Arauco, in the thirty-ninth degree of south 
€< latitude, are white and red, with blue eyes 
" and fair hair, like the Europeans, who arc 
" born in the middle of the northern tern- 
u perate zone. Their features are regular, 
" and some of them are beautiful/'* 

When South-America shall be well culti- 
vated, the timber cut down, the quantity of 
rain diminished, stagnant pools dried, and 
the rivers contained within their proper 
banks, the easterly winds being checked by 
the warmer surface of cultivated lands, a 
dusky race of men, nearly black, are to be 
expected in Brazil, about the latitude of Cape 
St. Roque; for that is the only part of Ame- 
rica in which the progress of industry may 
darken the skin, notwithstanding the effects 
of civilization. 

As no proof can be given, that the Ame- 
rican Indians are a new race of men, I 
shall consider the other trite allegation, that 
" animal nature degenerates in America." 

* Compendio de la historic geografica natural y civil del 
regno de Chile. 

Por el abate Don Juan Ignatio Molina. 
I have not seen the Italian original., but I presume that 
the Spanish translation is correct. 



( 76* ) 



This opinion, advanced by the eloquent 
Buffon, and supported by many arguments, 
has also been repeated by Dr. Robertson, 
the Abbe Raynal, and by other writers. The 
most remarkable appearance is that " all 
" animals in America, including those who 
" have been naturalized to the climate, are 
u commonly inferior in size to those of the 
" old continent. Nature appears, in that 
" new world, to have finished her works 
" upon a smaller scale."* 

" There seems therefore to be, in the com- 
et bination of elements, and other physical 
" causes, in this new world, something that is 
" opposed to the amplification of animated 
nature. There are some obstacles to the 
" developement and perhaps to the formation 
" of great germs, "-f- 



* " Ce qui paroitrapeut etre beaucoup plus singulier c'est 
" que tous les animaux d'Amerique, meme ceux qui sont 
a naturels au climat sont beaucoup plus petits en general 
" que ceux de Fancien continent. La nature semble s'etre 
" servie dans ce nouveau mond d'une autre eschelle de 
" grandeur. 5 ' Buffon Hist. Nat. d'Quadrup. t. iii. p. 173. 
Ed. Par. 1784. 

f " II y a done dans la combinaison des elemens et des au- 
i: tres causes physiques, quelque chose de contraire a Fa- 
u grandissement de la nature vivante dans ce nouveau 



( 77 I 

Although the savage of America Ts 
" nearly of the same stature with men in the 
" other continent, this is not a sufficient ex- 
M ception to the general contraction of ani- 
u mated nature through that whole conti- 

" nent. The American savage has no 

" hair, no beard, no ardour for his female, 
nimbler than the European, be- 
*l cause he is more accustomed to running, 
" his strength is not so great. His sensations 
" are less acute, but he is at the same time 
" more timid and cowardly. He is without 
« vivacity or enterprise."* 

" America gives birth to no creature of 



monde: il y a des obstacles au developpement & peutetre 
« a la formation des grands germes." Ib. p. 207. 

* Button's History of Quadrupeds, vol. iii. 

a Quoique le sauvage du nouveau monde soit a peu pres 
u de meme stature que l'homme de notre monde, cela ne 
« sufiit pas pour qu'il puisse faire une exception au fait 
« general du rapetissement de la nature vivante dans tout 
« ce continent. Le sauvage est foible 8c- petit par les or- 
« ganes de la generation; il n' a ni poil ni barbe, 8c nulle 
« ardeur pour sa femelle. Quoique plus leger que 1' £u- 
« ropeen parce qu'il a plus d'habitude a courir, il est cepen- 
« dant beaucoup moins fort de corps: il est aussi bien 
« moins sensible & cependant plus craintif & plus lache; 
" il n' a nulle activite dans 1' ame." Buifon Hist. Qadrup. 
torn. iii. p. 208. 



{ ?8 j 



m such bulk as to be compared with the eic~ 
" P hant or rhinoceros, nor that equals the 
" lion or tyger in strength and ferocity. 
■'The same qualities, in the climate of 
" America, which stinted the growth, and 
" enfeebled the spirit of its native animals, 
" have proved pernicious to such as have 
" migrated into it voluntarily, from the old 
" continent, or have been transported hither 
" by the Europeans. 

" Most of the domestic animals with 
" which the Europeans stored the provinces 
when they settled there, have degenerated 
" with respect to bulk and quality, in a 
" country whose temperature and soil seem 
to be less favourable to the strength and 
" perfection of animal creation."* 

The whole of this description is poetical 
and imaginary; for it has no foundation in 
nature. It is not from any vice in the climate, 
nor the want of proper food, but from the 
happy state of our country, from the general 
ease with which men have supported them- 
selves in America, that domestic animals have 
been supposed to degenerate. Nothing less 



* Dr. Robertson's History of America, 



( M ) 



than necessity has ever produced diligence in 
any kingdom or state. The man who has 
little to do, acquires habits of idleness, and he 
does less. In Europe, where the means of 
living are difficult, pasturage scarce and fo- 
rage dear, the farmer is restrained in the 
number of his cattle; for this reason the cattle 
he keeps are attended with great care. They 
are duly housed and fed; the largest and 
best are preserved for breed, and every thing 
is done by which the size may be increased, 
and the value enhanced of the few he has 
for sale. The forest, in America, supplied the 
stock with pasture during the summer, and 
during the winter, in some of the colonies, 
when they were first settled. In the nor- 
thern colonies, the cattle were fed in winter, 
but they were seldom housed. Hence it fol- 
lows, that they were shrivelled and diminished, 
by cold storms, hail and snow, as the human 
species have been diminished in Lapland 
and Siberia. In addition to those diminish- 
ing causes, the first colonists, in most cases, 
were inattentive to the size of the male or fe- 
male from which their cattle were to spring. 
We have a remarkable instance, in the Chick- 
asaw nation, of the bad effects of breeding. 



( so ) 

from diminutive parents. Those Indian! 
were originally furnished by de Soto with a 
breed of Spanish horses.* In that country 
the horses provided for themselves, the soil 
being good and the climate warm. The In- 
dians, towards the middle of the last century, 
discovered that their horses were a valuable 
article of commerce; they could be ex- 
changed for guns, blankets, and other ne« 
cessaries; but the traders, in all cases, bought 
the largest horses, and the smallest were left 
to continue the breed. The effect is obvious, 
for the Chickasaw horses are confessedly 
smaller than they were fifty years ago. Other 
causes, sufficiently numerous, may be giveH 
of quadrupeds degenerating in America, 
under the shrivelling hand of indolence and 
neglect; but it would not follow, from a 
thousand such examples, that America can- 
not produce a race of animals large and vi- 
gorous as similar animals in the old conti- 
nent. I do not say that America has pro- 
duced greater or stronger animals than ever 
were seen on the opposite part of the globe* 

* De Soto passed a winter among the Chickasaws, near 
t|e river Mississippi, and left some of his horses there, 



( 81 } 



but we know that bones have been found, 
both in North and South America, of sundry 
animals, granivorous and carnivorous, that: 
Were greatly superior in size to the elephant; 
the lion, or any other beast now living in 
the old continent. Although the beast, 
whose bones and claws were lately found in 
Green-Brier, in Virginia,* must have been 
a carnivorous animal, and greatly superior 
to the lion in strength ; we cannot affirm that 
he was equally fierce; for it is admitted, that 
lions who are found near mount Atlas are 
neither so fierce nor strong as those who are 
nourished on the burning deserts of Nigritia* 
From this we infer, that extreme heat con- 
duces to the ferocity of beasts of prey, and 
that animals of the carnivorous kind are less 
ferocious in America than in the hotter re- 
gions of the other continent. With respect 
to our domestic animals, whose parents have 
been imported from Europe, we should not 
boast in our turn, by saying that the present 
yace is larger or stronger than those who were 
imported; but we may affirm, without dan- 

* See Transactions of the American Philosophical So* 
r/iety, vol. iy. p, 246. 

m 



( 32 | 



ger of being refuted, that there are numerous 
instances of cattle, lately raised in the United 
States, full as large as any of the same kind 
in Europe. If it should be alleged that ani- 
mals frequently improve under the influence 
of our happy soil and climate, we might 
quote an author of great reputation, who 
lived in Europe, in favour of that position.* 
Speaking of Chili in South-America, he says, 
" The animals of our hemisphere not only 
4< multiply, but improve in this delightful 
" region. The horned cattle are of a larger 
44 size than those of Spain. Its breed of 
" horses surpass both in beauty and spirit* 
" the famous Andalusian race from which 
u they sprang/' 

Does the human race degenerate in Ame- 
rica? We are much interested in this ques- 
tion, whatever the fate of quadrupeds may be. 
The want of beard, in the American savage* 
has commonly been mentioned as a proof that 
he is of an inferior race of animals; or that 
he is greatly degenerated. " The beardless 
*f countenance and smooth skin of the Ame- 
" rican seem to indicate a defect of vigour, 



* Robertson's History of America.- 



( 83 ) 



* occasioned by some vice in his frame. 
" He is destitute of one sign of manhood and 
" strength.''* From the Indian's supposed 
want of beard, philosophers seem to have 
inferred his want of strength, courage and 
affection for the other sex. The Indians, like 
the Tartars, and other Asiatics, from whom 
they are chiefly descended, have thin beards; 
but writers who urge their want of beard, in 
proof that they are a new race of men, do not 
consider that there are numerous tribes or 
nations in the Eastern parts of the old conti- 
nent, who, like the Indians, appear to be 
without any beard. They constantly pluck 
it out. The islanders in the South Sea have 
beards, as we are told by Capt. Cooke, but 
many of them pluck it out, or the greater 
part of it, as well as the hair from under their 
arms. Whoever takes the trouble to make 
himself acquainted with the subject, must 
think it strange that an opinion destitute 
of truth, without other foundation than dis- 
tant and hasty observation, should have ob- 
tained so general a credit in Europe. f At 

* Robertson's History of America. 

f The American reader who knows how little truth 
there is in such assertions, should not be in haste to crimj..- 



( U ) 



a meeting -of Indians from different tribes, in 
the year 1796, I examined near fifty of 
them, and there was not, in that number, a 
single Indian without a beard. There were 
Indians of the Chocktaw, the Chickesaw* 
the Cherokee, the Creek, the Chipawa, and 
the Shawanese nations. Their beards in ge- 
neral were shaved, but some of the chiefs 
had suffered whiskers to remain on the upper 

saate historians, who have propagated this opinion, as men 
who intended to deceive. They saw in most cases with 
the eyes of other men, and they argued from the report 
of ignorant or dishonest travellers; from the report of men 
who falsify the truth for the sake of dealing in the marvel- 
lous Men there are, who, by doing little more than riding 
post through a country, deem themselves qualified to draw 
the character of soil, climate and inhabitants, under the 
head of travels. And if such travels do not contain marks 
of ignorance, malice, and a criminal departure from truth 
in every sheet, they are more correct than some travels 
in America that have lately appeared. In this case I do 
not refer to those libels lately published in England, by 
such men as Weld or Parkinson. W riters of that class 
do not claim attention. Their purpose may have been to 
prevent emigration, a desirable object when they wrote; 
but it might have been effected by other means. I refer 
to the subjects of another nation; to writers who had 
some rank in society. Although the man who inherits 
a title may not inherit either the talents or virtue of his 
ancestors, the public have a right to expect that he will 
adhere to the truth. 



( 85 ) 



lip; or they suffered a small portion on the 
chin, to grow to a considerable length.* 
One of the Shawanese chiefs had strong whis- 
kers upon his upper lip, and so had a Chicke- 
saw and a Cherokee chief. As the Indians 
seem to know that they have been regarded 
as an inferior, beardless race of men, it is not 
improbable that the custom of wearing whis- 
kers, such as we have observed, by some of 
their chiefs, may have originated in pride; 
or it may be considered as a mark of se- 
niority and rank. A dark skin does not 
show the beard when shaved, but whiskers are 
very conspicuous. The habit of shaving 
is modern, among the Indians, and such is 
probably the use of whiskers, for the ancient 
custom was to pluck out the beard. It was 
pulled out by the finger nails, as some of 
them allege, and others of them describe 
other modes by which it was extirpated. 
The tedious hours of an idle savage, setting 

* Lawson, speaking of the Indians on a branch of Cla- 
rendon river, in North-Carolina, in the year 1706, says, 
» Most of those Indians wear mustochios, or whiskers, 
« which is rare, by reason the Indians are a people that 
« commonly pluck the hair of their faces, and other parts,. 
" up by the root, and suffer none to grow." Lawson'* 
History of Carolina. 



( S6 ) 



on the ground, more than half his time; 
without work, without books, without con- 
verse, and almost without thought, must 
have been relieved by the frequent and trif- 
ling exercise of plucking the beard. And 
it is not improbable that the desire of some 
employment, which required little motion, 
and little exertion of the mind, gave rise to 
that other absurd, but very common practice 
among savages, tatooing, or marking the skin 
by various paints and figures. It appears 
strange, at first sight, that a custom so unna- 
tural as pricking the skin, and marking it 
with different paints, should prevail among 
the savage nations in Africa and Asia, in the 
South Seas and in America. The Arabs mark 
their lips, as well as the arms and body, with 
blue paint.* Customs like these, which ori- 
ginated in whim, or rather in the desire of 
relieving tedious hours by some employ- 
ment, produce a considerable change in the 
external form : and that adventitious form is 
soon regarded as a criterion of beauty; it 
becomes general in the nation. The Indi- 

* Pietro della Valie. The savage mountaineers in the 
kingdom of Ava, in India, disfigure themselves by tatoo- 
ing:. 



< 87 ) 



ans, like the Tartars, frequently cut the hau: 
from the greater part of their head. This 
custom was prior to the use of scissars among 
them. Some old Indians whom I consulted 
on this subject, allege, that their ancestors, 
not having sharp instruments, had recourse 
to fire: such is their tradition, for removing 
the hair. They singed it off with a live coal 
of hickory, or some other hard wood. Those 
observations, on the subject of beards, per- 
fectly agree with the testimony of other peo- 
ple. I have been assured by traders and gen- 
tlemen who have conversed much with the 
Indians, and lived among them on terms of 
the utmost familiarity, that Indians, in all 
cases, have hair, exactly as white people 
have it ; without any difference, except that 
it is thiner. As their taste begins to change, 
from their acquaintance with white people,, 
they are less solicitous, at present, to extir- 
pate those hairs, which are not supposed, z$ 
formerly, to mar the beauty. 

We know that women among the Ame- 
rican Indians, are forced to perform all the 
hard labour that is necessary to the support of 
a family. The husband smokes his pipe, 
or sleeps in his cabin, while his wife hoes 



I 88 ) 



the corn, with a child at her back. By this 
mark of apathy, or unkindness to his female, 
the American savage is supposed to be distin- 
guished from other men. " Marriage itself, 
" instead of being an union of affection and 
" interest between equals, becomes, among 
% them, the unnatural conjunction of a mas* 
' % ter with his slave."* The author of this 
femark was not unacquainted with the man- 
ners of rude nations in the old continent; and 
if he had sought for a satisfactory proof, that 
men are all of the same family, and that the 
disposition is not changed by an extraordinary 
change of climate, he would have found 
such a proof in the conduct of the American 
savage to his female. 

There is no living creature on the old 
continent, bird or beast, that is so much dis- 
tinguished as man, in his uncultivated state, 
by the want of kindness to his female com- 
panion. The male bird is most assiduous in 
helping his mate to feed their young. Some 
males among the beasts, when their assist- 
ance is not wanted, neglect their female ; but 
none of them adds to her trouble, or treats 



? Robertson's History of America. 



( 80 ) 



her with cruelty. Man alone is distinguished 
by the want of kindness, and by cruelty to 
his female. Perhaps Russia may be the only 
country in which the tyranny of a husband 
is reduced to a system, and avowed in the 
marriage ceremony; but Russia is not the 
only part of the old continent in which the 
wife is a slave to her husband. The Arabian 
does not suffer his wife to eat with him; he 
would, as he conceives, be degraded by her 
company; but he compels her to bring wood 
and water, to dress his victuals, and to per- 
form every other menial service. His sons 
are taught to despise their mother. She is 
not suffered to eat with them after they are 
eight or ten years old. In that ancient na- 
tion, we see the character of men, who are 
not perfectly civilized, as it may be traced 
through all shades and colours, in the old 
continent, or the islands connected with it. 
In many of the nations in Europe, who pre- 
sume to call other men savages, the weak 
and humble wife continues to suffer under 
the chastisement of a master. We have rea- 
son to believe that man is the greatest tyrant 
upon earth, His strength is the measure of 
hh conduct The little despot in his family, 

13 



I 90 } 

and the great despot on his throne, exhibit 
the same character. Those who are weaker 
may expect to smart beneath the arm of 
power. Women are indebted to civilization 
alone for the happiness they enjoy, in some 
parts of the world. And their situation, in 
every part, must be improved by the pro- 
gress of knowledge. We soon discover that 
all permanent happiness depends on senti- 
ment and reflection. The consciousness of 
giving protection and comfort to those who 
place themselves under our care; to those 
who are weaker and need our assistance, is 
the solace and reward of men who feel and 
reason : it is the source of their greatest hap- 
piness. The pleasure that arises from do- 
mestic attachments, from the constant exer- 
cise of kindness to a wife and children, can- 
not be equalled by all the other enjoyments 
in life. The greater part of our species, in 
the old world, have not discovered this truth. 
Idle and indolent, governed by passion and 
Hot by reason, they remain inexorable ty- 
rants. If a separate race of men had been 
formed for America, in which animals arc 
said to be less fierce, or less savage, it is pro- 
bable that the man of America would have 



{ 91 ) 



been less cruel to his female than the tyrant 
of the old world; but his manners, on this 
head, give an additional proof that he is of 
the old family. 

After stating the great resemblance that is 
found between the American savage, and 
his savage brother in other parts of the world ? 
it can hardly be necessary to give many 
other proofs that they are too much alike. 
The American Indians are described as men 
who are passionately fond of strong drink. 
On this head they perfectly resemble the 
savage and half savage of the old continent. 
The Tartar gets drunk with fermented mare's 
milk: the Mahometan with opium and the 
smoke of tobacco: the ancient Scythians in- 
toxicated themselves with the fumes of hemp 
seed: the Celtic and Teutonic nations with 
ale and mead : the African gets drunk with 
brandy. We say nothing of the modem 
nations that are more civilized, who, to the 
reproach of rationality, seem to have a plea- 
sure in resembling beasts. Weary of decent 
deportment, and fatigued with the trouble 
of thinking, they deliberately sit down to 
deprive themselves of reason. The Ameri- 



( 92 | 



can savage is equally attached to drinking 
and gambling with his European brother. 

The nations of America have' been repre- 
sented as men of little strength ; but as they 
are known to be at least equal in size to 
those of the other continent, they may also 
be presumed to be their equals in strength, 
when they are fed in the same manner, and 
equally accustomed to labour. Such of them 
as have been employed, from Nantucket, in 
whaling, can hardly be matched at an oar. 
Activity, combined with strength, renders 
them excellent seamen. 

The courage of the American savage has 
been mentioned, like his other qualities, in 
terms of reproach; he is said to be " plus 
craintif et plus lache,"* more timid and 
more cowardly. The Indians make war by 
stratagem, but they are not therefore to be 
deemed cowards. They are not very nu- 
merous, for which reason they are not pro- 
digal of life. The point of honour, with an 
Indian chief, does not consist in facing his 
enemy in the field, but in saving his own 



■* Buffon, 



C S3 ) 



men. Such is the dictate of prudence, 
The Spartan youth were trained to all kinds 
of stealth and stratagem, that they might 
the better be enabled to surprise an enemy; 
but the Spartans were among the bravest of 
men. When it*became proper or necessary 
to face an enemy, they never turned their 
backs. It is admitted that Indians have 
shown the most astonishing degree of forti- 
tude in bearing torture. This has been called 
passive courage; but the same men are sup- 
posed to be deficient in active courage; and 
this strange conjecture is founded on their 
art of war, which differs from that of Euro- 
peans. The Indian secures himself in battle 
by a tree or some other cover. If a cover 
be a mark of cowardice, our ancestors, who 
fought in armour, were deficient in active 
courage, and so are the moderns, who avail 
themselves of trenches, or any other species 
of fortification. The object of an Indian 
chief is to destroy his enemy, with as little 
loss to himself as possible. Having this ob- 
ject in view, he avails himself of the best 
means in his power ; nor is he afraid of re- 
proach, while he adheres to his purpose. 
We have seen instances, too many, of brain- 



/ 



I 94* ) 



less white commanders, who have sacrificed 
half of their men, in fruitless and hopeless 
actions, only because they feared, lest they 
should be suspected of the want of courage. 
The virtues of Fabius were not less admired, 
when he patiently endured *the insults of an 
enemy, than when he met that enemy in 
the field. Men are less afraid of reproach, 
when they are conscious of not deserving it. 
In whatever manner the Indians may think 
fit to meet an enemy, they give unquestion- 
able proofs, that.they are not afraid of death. 
Surrounded in a block-house, without am- 
munition, we have known them perish in the 
flames, because they would not surrender 
and become prisoners. When I say that the 
Indian mode of fighting, under cover, is the 
dictate of policy, not of fear, I am prepared 
to give instances, not a few,-in which they 
have shown proofs of undaunted courage in 
the open field, when the other mode of 
fighting could not be adopted. It is found 
that our woodsmen are rather an overmatch 
for the Indians, in correct shooting with a 
rifle; but our chief advantage, in disputes 
with the native savage, must ever consist in 
superior numbers, or the use of cavalry. 



( M ) 



When America was first discovered, the na- 
tives appeared contemptible and dastardly, 
from their want of arms. A white man to 
an Indian was then a giant to a pigmy; but 
an Indian, well provided with arms, is now 
become a dangerous enemy.* 

By a general view of the human race and 
its varieties on the old continent, and by 
comparing those people with the original 
inhabitants of America, we must be con- 
vinced that men are all descended from the 
same stock, and that America was peopled 
from the other continent; but we have no 
information concerning the time in which 
the first colonists were transported. The 
great extent of population in America, when 
Columbus made his discoveries, about three 
hundred years ago, is a sufficient proof that 
many years had elapsed since the aborigines 
had come to this continent; but the modern 
date of the largest and most populous em- 
pires then existing in America, has been 
supposed to justify a belief, that the first set- 
tlement of America was recent, when com- 
pared with that of the other continent. At 



* See proofs and explanations B 



( m ) 

the period to which I refer, America was 
settled in all directions, from north to south, 
although no part of it was fully peopled; 
nor had any progress been made in those 
arts, which are the fruit of necessity in 
old and numerous societies. Those circum- 
stances, however, can neither be urged in 
proof of a very ancient nor a very recent 
settlement. Migrations, in the old conti- 
nent, have lately been the effect of a crowd- 
ed population; but migrations in America 
sprang from a different cause. The first ad- 
venturers, who were little attached to their 
native soil, could hardly be attached to a 
particular part of the land they had disco- 
vered. Sustaining themselves without la- 
bour, in a country that abounded in game, 
they acquired habits of idleness. When the 
game became scarce in one part, they re- 
moved to another. The same spirit produces 
the same effects, among the present white 
inhabitants of North-America. The more 
adventurous, more fickle, or more indolent, 
move to the frontiers, and settle upon new 
lands. When the range is impaired, or the 
game diminished, those very men, or their 
children, move onward, and follow the 



{ 91 ) 



range; for they raise little corn, eating flesh 
instead of bread; whence their habits of 
idleness become inveterate. As the ocean 
yields a supply of food, that is more easily 
caught than birds or beasts, it follows that 
the sea coast was first explored; but the 
greater number of inhabitants were found 
in warm or temperate climates ; because in 
such climates the means of subsistence were 
easy. In this manner every part of America 
may have been visited, and sparse settle- 
ments formed, within a few centuries after 
it was first discovered. In this manner too, 
as we are taught by civil history, the other 
continent was originally settled. The first 
migrations were not the effect of a crowded 
population; they were caused by a rambling 
or adventurous temper. Every country was 
first visited by single families, or by small- 
parties, who migrated in the spirit of ambi- . 
don, discontent or caprice, from young co- 
lonies or new governments. We have the 
names of men on the other continent, who 
were celebrated as the founders of govern- 
ment ; but those men, in every case, appear 
to have found a weak, unconnected race 
of savages, scattered over the country in 

14 



( 98 ) 

which they fixed their empire. Cecrops 
was not the first man who discovered Attica. 
When Taut removed a colony to upper 
Egypt he found people there. Rama, who 
founded the Indian empire in Asia, was a 
conqueror; he must have found people to 
contend with. When we turn our inqui- 
ries to empires that are more recent or better 
Ivnown, we find the same difficulty in deter- 
mining: who was the first settler. We can 
mark the time when there were not many 
people in Great-Britain or Ireland, and we 
can trace colonies, to the island last named, 
from Greece, Carthage, Spain, and Britain ; 
but we have no evidence, by which we can 
determine, who were the first settlers. They 
certainly did not migrate from a crowded 
hive, whoever they may have been. When 
the small tribes, who first settled in America, 
had destroyed the game in one place, they 
removed to another without difficulty or op- 
position ; but in the process of time, migra- 
tions were not effected without trouble, for 
all the country was claimed as hunting 
ground by one tribe or another. In that 
case hostilities commenced, and men were 
destroyed, that bears and buffaloes might 



( 99 ) 



have room to breed. The failure of game 
caused the Indians, in some cases, to turn 
their attention to agriculture : and it appears 
that successful chiefs, in the usual spirit of 
domination, in some cases, extended their 
authority, by adding weaker tribes to their 
respective empires. In this manner, the 
monarchs of Peru and Mexico were extend- 
ing their domains, when the Spaniards visit- 
ed this continent ; and in this manner, the 
greatest empires formerly sprang up in the 
other hemisphere. But Mexico and Peru 
may have been well peopled, many a cen- 
tury before there was a monarch in either 
of those countries. 

It has been observed that the American 
savage, passing over the shepherd state, was 
turning his attention, in some instances, to 
the cultivation of the soil. From this cir- 
cumstance, it has J^een alleged that he dif- 
fers greatly from the man of the other con- 
tinent; but this inference is not correctly de- 
duced, for it is known that the introduction 
of new arts and customs is frequently to be 
ascribed to what is called pure accident 
The casual discovery of gunpowder in Eu- 
rope gave rise to a variety of new customs. 



{ 100 ) 

and to the neglect of old ones. The intro- 
duction or discovery of a grain, that was 
easily cultivated, may have promoted agri- 
culture; or the want of the most useful do- 
mestic animals may have caused the em- 
ployment of a shepherd to be forgotten. 
The use of cows, sheep, and goats was 
known to the first family upon the other 
continent; and that family was also instruct- 
ed in the art of cultivating the earth. The 
first emigrants from the original stock were 
equally instructed in the several arts of til- 
ling the earth, tending cattle, and killing 
game; but as men always prefer the most 
easy mode of living, they would support 
themselves, for many years, by hunting 
alone; for in new countries, where there is 
any winter, a family is most easily supported 
by hunting and fishing. When the game 
.failed, they had recourse, in every case, to 
the other most easy mode of living, to the 
care of cattle; for the colonists, who were 
never separated from the parent state by an 
ocean, could easily obtain a supply of cattle, 
when they needed them. In the progress 
of population, when pasture failed for cattle, 
they had recourse to agriculture. Thus it 



( 101 ) 



was, that the shepherd state commonly suc- 
ceeded the chase, and that again was suc- 
ceeded by agriculture. This succession did 
not, for it could not, take place in America. 
The first planters brought with them the 
usual stock of knowledge, but they brought 
no cattle. They brought the maize,* as I 

* Although maize and tobacco are both commonly sup- 
posed to have originated in America, there is much rea- 
son to believe that both those plants were carried from 
Asia, by the original emigrants. I suspect that the Es- 
quimaux Indians, when first discovered, had not the use 
of maize, for their ancestors came from a part of the other 
continent in which that grain is not cultivated, but it is 
cultivated in Asia. " The inhabitants," says Labillardier, 
" sold us ears of maize, still green, which had been boil- 
u ed." This was in one of the Molucca islands. Tobacco, 
as we are told, is cultivated by the natives in the vicinity 
of Nootka Sound. But tobacco is a tropical plant. The 
seed must have been imported from Asia. The Chinese* 
who seldom change their habits, have long been smokers 
of tobacco. Certain nations in India, beyond the Ganges, 
are slaves to the use of this nauseous plant. The inhabit- 
ants of the island Sagaleen, about the 49th degree of lati- 
tude, are also perpetual smokers of tobacco. We are told 
by La Perouse, that " they have good large leafed tobacco* ' 
" and the pipe is never out of their mouths." They are 
supposed to purchase their tobacco from the Tartars. It 
has also been observed, that the Tartars on the continent, 
nearly opposite to that island, are enslaved by the use of 
tobacco. " Every male of them, young and old, wears a 
a leathern girdle, to which are hung a little pouch for to- 



{ 102 ) 



presume, that we call Indian corn, for it is 
said to grow in Asia. If they wished to 
raise cattle, they could not obtain the species 
to which they had been accustomed, but 
they could raise corn, for they had the seed : 
hence it was, that in all cases some degree 
of agriculture immediately followed the ha- 
bit of living by the chase. 

The annals of the American savage, like 
those of every other nation, have been cor- 
roded by the rust of time. When we speak 
of the epoch in which they arrived, we find 
ourselves travelling in the regions of conjec- 
ture, having few marks, and those very ob- 
scure, to direct our course, We discover 
nothing that may be deemed certain, except 
that they came, the greater part of them, 
from Asia, and that the time of their arrival 
is very distant. 

While it was presumed that America was 
separated from the other continent by an 
ocean of considerable extent, various opi- 
nions were formed respecting the manner in 

* bacco and a pipe." It is not to be supposed that all thos& 
nations, so distant and lately discovered, imported thei: 
tobacco, or it's seed, within the last Uiree hundred pears, 
from America. 



( 103 ) 



which this continent had been peopled; for 
the ancestor of an American savage, in his 
canoe, could not be supposed to have ad- 
ventured far upon the ocean; but the disco- 
veries of late navigators have removed all 
difficulties on that head. We learn from 
Capt. Cooke and others, that Asia is not far 
distant from America. They may be seen, 
at the same time, from a ship in the middle 
passage.* It has also been discovered, that 
all the little islands, between the northern 
parts of Asia and America, are inhabited by 
savages, who must have wandered from Asia; 
and it is not to be supposed that a similar 
race of men did not travel to America. In 
a word, the descent of the North-American 
Indians, or the greater number of them, from 
Asiatic Tartars, or their progenitors, is now 
so fully established, that I shall not exercise 
the reader's patience, in showing how much 
they resemble one another in their features, 
their scantiness of beard, or their language; 
but the Tartar did not transport his horse, 
and the want of that animal has caused many 
shades of difference in their habits. 



* The distance is not above thirteen leagues- 



( 104 ) 



In stating that the aborigines of North- 
America are chiefly descended from the 
Tartars, or from the same stock with the 
Tartars, I am supported by common tradi- 
tion* among those people, as well as by the 
obvious facility of the passage. But some 
of the northern Indians, as I suspect, emi- 
grated from Europe. It can hardly be ques- 
tioned that the Esquimaux Indians are the di- 
minutive sprouts of Norwegian ancestors. f 
It is fully ascertained, that colonies from 
Norway settled in Iceland and Greenland 
near one thousand years ago; but the first 
adventurers who are mentioned in history, 
found a race of savages who had preceded 
them. 

The same adventurers who discovered Ice- 
land, at the period to which I refer, extended 
their travels to the Labrador coast, where 
they found a race of savages, who appeared 
also, by their language, to have emigrated 
from Denmark or Norway. When we con- 
sider the distance of Iceland, Greenland,, 
and the Labrador coast, from the British isles,* 

* The Indians in general in this part of America allege 
that they came from the north-westward, 
t See proofs and explanations C, 



( 105 ) 

or the northern parts of the continent, the 
difficulty and danger of navigating the north- 
ern ocean, in high latitudes, and the con- 
temptible vessels now in use among the Es- 
quimaux, it may appear strange that every 
island, and every spot of land in those in- 
hospitable regions, should have been disco- 
vered and settled at the time to which I 
have referred. This phenomenon is best 
accounted for, by recollecting that there 
must have been a time in which the northern 
ocean was navigated with less danger than 
at present; when Iceland, Greenland, and 
the Labrador coast were much more hospit= 
able, the soil more productive, and the cli- 
mate more temperate than they are at pre- 
sent. This allegation may appear somewhat 
paradoxical, when it is compared with a 
former observation, that the winter's cold ha* 
been gradually decreasing for more than 
2000 years, in the greater part of the world. 
The fact, however, is not to be disputed. 
The natives of Labrador, from their want of 
letters can vWe us no account of the change 
that has taken place in that country; but 
die case is verv different m Iceland. The 
inhabitants of that island have preserved 

15 



( 106 ) 



their history for nine or ten centuries, and 
the change of climate there has been fully 
established. I do not say that the numerous 
population of Iceland, near one thousand 
years ago, or the flourishing state of arts and 
sciences among those people, at so distant a 
period, is to be taken for a proof that the 
climate was formerly more temperate, and 
the soil more productive than at present; 
although they add great probability to this 
opinion; but we find an argument in the 
natural history of the island, that seems to 
be absolutely conclusive. It is not to be dis- 
puted, that in former ages Iceland produced 
timber in abundance.* Large trees are oc- 
casionally found there, in the marshes or 
vallies, that have been covered to a consider- 
able depth in the ground. Segments of those 

* It is asserted in the ancient Icelandic records, that 
when Ingulf, the Norwegian, first landed in Iceland, anno 
879, he found so thick a growth of birch trees, that he 
penetrated them with difficulty. Some modern historians, 
knowing that no trees of any kind grow at present in that 
island, have expressed their fears lest the veracity of the 
ancient annalists should be suspected. If they had known 
that trunks of trees have lately been found in that island, 
buried several feet deep in the earth, their fears would 
have been obviated. 



{ 107 ) 



fossil trees have lately been exported from 
the island, in proof of the fact alleged. But 
we are equally certain, that in the present 
age timber does not thrive in .the island. Its 
growth is prevented, or the plants are de- 
stroyed by the intensity of the winter's cold, 
as in the northern extremities of Asia and 
America, where nothing but shrubs are to 
be found. The same pej oration of climate, 
and a similar degeneracy in the productions 
of the soil, have certainly taken place on 
the Labrador cost that have been observed 
in Iceland. 

This remarkable increase of cold in high 
northern latitudes, may be accounted for by 
reference to a general deluge, the flood of 
Noah. I am aware that allegations, in natu- 
ral or civil history, are not to be supported 
by referring to a book whose authority is 
disputed; but, in the present case, I must be 
permitted to allege the certainty of a general 
deluge, provided it will account for the se- 
veral phenomena, and provided those phe- 
nomena cannot otherwise be accounted for, 

Upon the supposition of a general deluge 
it will be admitted, that immediately after 
the flood there could be no ice in any part 



( 10$ ) 



of the ocean. The waters in the northern 
regions were exactly of the same tempe- 
rature as the waters in other parts of the 
ocean, for they had the same origin. The 
fountains of the great deep were broken up. 
The temperature was thirty or forty degrees 
above the freezing point. In that case, the 
air in Iceland, or upon the Labrador coast, 
coming from the temperate surface of the 
ocean, was temperate and pleasant. Vege- 
tation in the long days of summer was vigor- 
ous, and the winter was not sufficiently cold 
to destroy perennial plants. In the process 
of time the waters near the pole lost a great 
part of their heat, and ice was formed in the 
creeks and bays. Large cakes of ice were 
occasionally broken off by storms, and de- 
tached from the shore. As the temperature 
of the ocean decreased, some part of the 
broken ice continued to float through the 
summer. Every succeeding year added to 
the size of the floating masses.* They were 

* It is a curious fact, and in perfect coincidence with 
this theory, that when the first Norwegian colony settled 
in Greenland, about one thousand years ago, they found no 
difficulty in approaching the coast, and a regular corres- 
pondence was supported with those people for many years. 



( 109 ) 



increased by rain, by snow, and by the spray 
of the sea. The northern ocean is nearly 
filled at present by those floating islands of 
durable ice. The summer winds that reach 
the coast, instead of being tempered, as for- 
merly, by a watery surface, are now chilled 
by mountains of ice; and they are become 
so intensely cold in winter, as to be destruc- 
tive of animal and vegetable life. 

It may possibly be alleged, that in the 
space of three thousand years, the time that 
passed between the flood and Ingulfs arrival 
in Iceland, the atmosphere should have been 
as cold, and the accumulation of ice as great 
in the northern ocean as they are at present. 
It is readily admitted, that when we consider 
the present degree of cold which prevails in 
high latitudes, we conclude that a few years 

That intercourse was entirely neglected during the dark 
ages of anarchy and misrule in Europe. Since the revival 
of learning, within the two last centuries, sundry attempts 
have been made to discover the remains of that colony, 
who lived on the eastern part of Greenland; but no land- 
ing can now be effected on that coast, by reason of the 
vast bodies of ice with which it is pressed. From this it 
is clear, that within the last seven or eight hundred years 
there has been a great increase of ice In high northern 
latitudes. 



( no ) 



would be sufficient to produce vast bodies of 
ice. But we are to consider, that in the case 
referred to, the water in every part of the 
ocean was tepid, and the whole face of the 
earth was of the same temperature with the 
water; whence it followed, that the atmos- 
phere could not be cold, nor could there be 
ice or snow in the longest nights of winter. 
We have no data by which we may com- 
pute the number of years or ages that were 
necessary to abstract so great a body of heat 
as then existed in the northern lands and 
ocean; but a long period must have been 
required, for there is no fact in natural his- 
tory more certain than that there was more 
heat, or less cold, in high northern latitudes, 
in the eighth or ninth century, than there 
is at present ; nor is it clear that the heat of 
the air, earth, or water, in those high lati- 
tudes, has vet attained its lowest degree.* 

By keeping in mind that there has been 
a time in which the climate was temperate, 
and the soil, for the same reason, was pro- 

* Vast bodies of ice from the northern seas are thought 
to have become more dangerous of late to navigators, near 
the banks of Newfoundland, than formerly. 



( 111 ) 



ductive in high northern latitudes, we are 
enabled to account for many phenomena 
which had appeared very enigmatical. We 
are no longer surprised that any part of our 
species should have migrated and settled 
themselves willingly in Lapland and other 
regions near the arctic circle; in regions 
from which nature, in the present age, seems 
to shrink with horror. Those countries, as 
we conceive, were all of them settled while 
the climate was temperate and the soil fit for 
cultivation. As the miseries that are caused 
by cold weather and a frozen soil increased, 
the habits and constitutions of the inhabit- 
ants suffered a considerable change, and they 
became attached to the land of their ances- 
tors. They now live, or seem to live con- 
tented, in a country to which criminals are 
banished as one of the severest punishments. 

By attending to the above stated changes 
in soil and climate, in high northern lati- 
tudes, we can easily discover how it should 
have happened that Norway contained a 
crowded population above one thousand 
years ago, and sent out colonies. 

By attending to that change of climate, 
in high latitudes, we can easily account for 



( 112 ) 

incidents that have excited general attention 
twelve or fifteen hundred years ago. We 
discover how it happened that certain coun- 
tries, which at present are not very desirable 
nor productive, had formerly been the offi- 
cina gentium, the very nursery of nations; 
and why, in the process of time, it became 
necessary for those very people to migrate 
by thousands in quest of better habitations. 

The rude and barbarous state of the abo- 
rigines, in every part of America, has been 
urged in favour of a recent establishment; 
but there are facts that argue a state of an- 
cient civilization, among those people, great- 
ly superior to what we find at present. As 
the natives of Mexico were the only people 
in North-America who had any pretentions 
to learning, when this country was discovered 
by Columbus, our knowledge of Indian his- 
tory is chiefly derived from those people s 
The outline of their history deserves our at- 
tention, as it has been drawn by the Abbe 
Clavigero, who was born in Vera-Cruz, lived 
thirty years in New-Spain, was master of the 
Mexican language, and had studied their 
historical paintings and other monuments of 
antiquity. 



( 113 ) 



The Toltecas were the first people claim- 
ing the notice of history, who settled in 
Mexico.* Those people came from the 
north-westward) having been expelled by 
their own countrymen. They had been one 
hundred years in coming, for they halted 
at sundry places, where they cleared ground, 
built houses, and planted corn and cotton 
for their sustenance and clothing. Having 
attained the 20th degree of latitude, the soil 
being fertile, and the climate pleasant, they 
built a city near the lake of Mexico, Their 
government lasted 384 years, from the build- 
ing of that city, which was about the year 
£00 of the Christian era. The Toltecas were 
not a military nation, but they had made 
considerable progress in useful and ornamen- 
tal arts. They supported themselves by agri- 
culture, and had the art of engraving pre* 
cious stones, and that of working in gold, 
silver, and copper. They also possessed an 
art* that is lost in Europe, the art of making 
instruments of copper durable and hard, as 
instruments of steel. They made hatchets 



* They were not the first people who arrived in Mexico.- 
for there were savage woodsmen before them, 



( ii* ) 



of copper, and other instruments of husban* 
dry. Those people had also made consider- 
able progress in the profound study of astro- 
nomy; for having discovered that the civil 
year was six hours shorter than the solar year, 
they had corrected the defect by adding an 
intercalary day to every fourth year. This 
correction of the calendar was made about 
live hundred years before they migrated 
from their original settlement. It is some- 
what remarkable that the Romans corrected 
their calendar about the same time. This 
peaceful, industrious, and learned nation 
was nearly exterminated by famine and pes- 
tilence, occasioned by the want of rain. 
The greater number of the survivors, in 
small parties, fled to different parts of the 
continent. 

The Chechemecas, at the interval of one 
hundred years from that period, settled in 
Mexico. This was a savage nation, that 
lived entirely by hunting. The Checheme- 
cas were followed by other tribes, who came 
also from the northward, with the desire of 
settling in that delightful country. The 
Aztecas, who have since been called Mexi- 
cans, were among the most noted of those 



( m ) 



emigrants. They arrived about seven hun- 
dred years ago. This nation is supposed to 
have retained some of the learning of their 
ancestors, for they understood hieroglyphic 
cal writing; but they had degenerated, like 
the greater part of the human race, upon 
the other continent, into the most gloomy 
superstition and barbarous idolatry.* They 
made a wooden god, whom they worship- 
ped; and when they became powerful, they 
sacrificed their prisoners, by thousands, to 
that abominable deity. 

From this sketch of Indian history, we 
are induced to believe, that the first adven- 
turers to North-America were composed of 
artists and husbandmen; that their posterity, 
for many ages, cultivated the arts in the place 
in which they first settled; but there was no 
extensive tract of fertile land in that part of 
America, wherefore small colonies issued 
from the parent stock, who supported them- 
selves by hunting, and in a short time be- 

* It may be questioned whether this barbarous nation 
brought with them any knowledge of astronomy and hie- 
roglyphics. It is more probable that they were instructed 
in Mexico, as the Ghechemecas had been instructed, by 
the remnant of the Aztecas, 



( H5 ) 



came savages, as in every other part of the 
world. It appears also, that the Toltecas, 
who lived many ages in the original Ameri? 
can settlement, were confirmed in their ha- 
bits of industry and peace; for which reason 
they migrated, and they alone seem to have 
migrated in the spirit of civilization, to search 
for a better soil and climate. Perhaps it 
would be vain to inquire for the original set* 
tlement of those people; to search for a tract 
of land, in that part of America, where they 
may have cultivated, spun, and wove the 
cotton whose seed they brought from Asia,* 
although the temperature of the winters in 
high latitudes, as we have seen, was much 

* As neither cotton nor maize thrive at present in high 
latitudes, it may be objected that the aborigines could not 
have brought the seed of those plants from Asia. But 
though the passage by Kamtschatka is very short, I do 
not conceive that the first emigrants came that way. They 
came, as I suspect, from a warmer climate. Whoever 
examines the Pacific Ocean, from the latitude of 40 de- 
grees on the coast of Asia, to the latitude of 50 degrees 
on the coast of America, must discover a chain of islands 
extending from Japan, or Jesso, to this continent, with 
little interruption. The Black Fox islands are nearly in 
sight of one another, and it is not improbable that other 
islands have disappeared, by which the original chain was 
perfected. I deem it highly probable that the first emi- 
grations were jnnde from Asia by those islands. 



( H7 } 



more pleasant three thousand years ago than 
it is at present. I do not mention a period 
so distant, because the Tolteca chronology 
goes back so fan I mention it because I 
am persuaded that the human race, or many 
of them, a short time after the flood, were 
possessed of more knowledge; that they 
were better acquainted with agriculture and 
the mechanic arts, than the bulk of their 
posterity fifteen hundred years after that 
time. 

In expressing my persuasion that the hu- 
man mind has, at any time, been sinking 
instead of progressing in knowledge, I am 
aware that I differ from the common opi- 
nion. But as my ideas on this subject are 
essentially connected with the general his- 
tory of the American savage, I deem it pro- 
per to explain them in a few words. 

When I speak of the common opinion, 
I do not refer to that of Epicurus, Lucre- 
tius, or other philosophers, of that class who 
allege that men spring from the earth, like 
seedless plants, being engendered by mois- 
ture and heat: for if men had originated in 
that manner, they must have been ignorant 
and brutish, as the greatest infidel can ima- 



( m ) 



gine. I refer to the fashionable opinion of 
a numerous class of modern philosophers; 
to the opinion of men who have attempted, 
with great ingenuity, to account for the ori- 
gin of language; to the opinion of men who 
have told us when and how it was that the 
human race began to discover the use of 
things, to think and to speak. Philosophers 
of this class have presumed that man came 
from the hands of his Maker a brute of the 
lowest grade; a biped without language and 
without knowledge. How strange the dream! 
That man, who was to be the head of a ra- 
tional family, a moral agent, and a candi- 
date for immortality, should be turned into 
the world, without the knowledge of virtue 
and vice, without ideas or the means of com- 
municating them. According to those phi- 
losophers, every beast of the field was cre- 
ated more perfect than man, for each of 
them had all the knowledge that was proper, 
all that was necessary to their comfortable 
subsistence. Is it not infinitely more proba- 
ble that the first man received, by the inspi- 
ration of the Almighty, all that useful know- 
ledge which his posterity were to receive by 
education; that he began his race, not in a 



( n 9 ) 



state of infancy, but of manhood? Upon 
this supposition it would follow that his lan- 
guage was not less perfect, or less correct, 
than any of its subsequent derivatives. Be 
this as it may, no man will dispute, that be- 
fore the deluge, if such an event be admit- 
ted, the human race were fully instructed in 
useful arts. It must follow that Noah and 
his sons, who lived long in Persia, at no great 
distance from the river Euphrates, were 
proficients in the arts and sciences; but their 
descendents, in every succeeding generation, 
as their lives were shorter and their habita- 
tions more dispersed, decreased in know- 
ledge. As this observation has a direct re- 
ference to the Mosaic history of man, I 
should not have stated it in this place, as a 
conclusive argument, unless it could be es- 
tablished, beyond the colour of dispute, that 
there has not been a nation on the face of 
the earth, having any pretences to learning, 
that has not been indebted to the very per- 
sons I have described, or to their descen- 
dents, in or near Caldea, for the rudiments 
of their learning. But of this I shall speak 
more fully hereafter, for the allegation above 
stated claims our present attention, Is it true, 



( 120 ) 



is it probable, that the human race are natu^> 
rally disposed to increase in knowledge? On 
the contrary, is it not clear that they possess 
a certain aversion from labour of body or 
mind ? We have daily proofs that the chil- 
dren of savage parents resist education. 
Those who have been trained for years in 
our colleges, and instructed with the utmost 
attention, escape, when their literary course 
is finished, like birds from a cage, and re- 
turn with greediness to a savage life. But 
the children of civilized parents, who have 
been captives, a few years, among the In- 
dians, seldom fail to become perfect savages. 
The effect of habit is alike on either side; 
whence it follows, that a life of indolence 
and ignorance is seductive. The theory of 
those philosophers is neither supported by 
personal observation, by tradition, nor by 
history. What progress have the Africans 
made in the course of three or four thousand 
years? There w r as a time in which the 
Ethiopeans possessed a considerable degree 
of knowledge: it has long since disappeared. 
Have the Tartars made any progress in ci- 
vilization? They are more ignorant at pre- 
sent than they were three thousand years 



( 121 ) 



ago, if any credit may be giveii to the most 
ancient historians. The Pelasgi, a learned 
nation, were Scythians. I say nothing of 
the savages in the polar regions, whose ex- 
ertions may be chilled by extreme cold; 
nor of the numerous savages who have lately 
been discovered in the South Sea. They do 
not justify a belief that the human race is 
naturally progressive in knowledge. Let us 
consider the nations who have been distin- 
guished by their learning; they never were 
numerous. The Chinese have been a learned 
nation ; they have been proficients in useful 
arts from the remotest ages recorded in his- 
tory. The Hindoos were also distinguished 
by their learning, at a period equally remote. 
Have we any reason to believe that either of 
those nations was self-taught? The Hindoos, 
instead of progressing, have not been able 
to preserve their learning, and the Chinese 
seem to be the preservers, not the inventors, 
of a single art. The Egyptians are said to 
have imported their learning from Ethiopea; 
but Pliny says, with more probability, that 
they were chiefly indebted to the Babyloni- 
ans. It is more than probable, as we shall 
show in another place, that each of tho?e 

17 



( 122 ) 



nations was indebted to the immediate de- 
scendents of Noah, for the rudiments of as- 
tronomy and useful arts. There are not many 
instances, in which colonies have migrated 
from a polished nation, without degenerating. 
In some cases they have lost part of their 
learning, but in many cases they have be- 
come savages. Is it a wonder that the origi- 
nal Americans had become savages, espe- 
cially when we consider, that they had not 
the same opportunity as colonists upon the 
other continent, to travel the backward path, 
and recover what they had lost? It may 
possibly be alleged, that according to the 
sketch here given of Indian history, the 
human mind in America has been in a state 
of constant degeneracy, the very position to 
which I had objected; but this consequence 
does not follow. When I allege that the 
human race do not degenerate in America, 
I refer to the native powers of the mind. 
They are not impaired by the soil or climate 
of America. In that position I have no re- 
ference to the effects of habit and education. 
By education alone, the sage is distinguished 
from the savage. We also contend that simi- 
lar circumstances have ever produced the 



( 123 ) 



same effect upon the other continent, which 
they have produced in America. It is 
known that detached colonies, who sup- 
ported themselves by hunting, have never 
failed to degenerate. It is also known that 
war has a direct tendency to extinguish the 
light of science. The subjects of the Ro- 
man empire, by a succession of wars and 
revolutions, for the space of six or eight 
hundred years, from a state of great im- 
provement in arts and sciences, had nearly 
become savages. The knowledge of letters 
was disappearing among the higher order of 
men, and the night of ignorance had nearly 
overtaken them. The empire of reason, 
like other empires, has its decline and fall, 
its summer and winter, its day and night. 

Is it not strange that any historian or phi- 
losopher should have alleged, to the re- 
proach of America, that the human race 
degenerate there, since it is fully established 
that they degenerate in every part of the 
world, in the like circumstances; that is to 
say, under the ravages of war, revolutions in 
government, and tyranny of despots? The 
habits and manners of every nation take 
their form and impression from the spirit of 



( ) 



the government under which they live, qr 
from the administration of that government. 
They are diligent or indolent, ignorant or 
well informed, according to the privileges 
they enjoy. The very consciousness of 
being free, excites a spirit of enterprise, and 
gives a spring to the intellectual faculties. 
Few men will devote themselves to intense 
study, who cannot with some degree of 
safety, communicate their opinions; nor has 
it been observed that men were ambitious to 
excel in the fine arts, who could not cherish 
the hope of reward. But in all govern- 
ments, where the tenure of property is un- 
certain, the rewards of diligence are counted 
as a dream. Hence it follows, that the in- 
crease of science in every government, has 
been proportioned, in a considerable degree, 
to personal liberty, and the safety of pro- 
perty. There was a time in which the Egyp- 
tians were learned, when compared with the 
surrounding nations. But the Egyptians 
had a stable government, and the tenure of 
property, for many ages, was secure in that/ 
nation. Egypt, since that time, has been 
conquered once and again. Those people 
have lived above two thousand years, without 



( 125 ) 



property or personal safety, and they have 
long been a race of ignoratit slaves. The 
Hindoos, or one of their classes, had long 
enjoyed a great degree of wealth and per* 
sonal freedom; during that period, they 
were eminent for learning. They were af- 
terwards visited by northern conquerors; they 
were plundered, and felt that they were no 
longer free. What was the effect? The 
present race of men, who are called learned, 
do not understand the principles of their an- 
cient learning. We are much better ac- 
quainted with the history of Greece than 
with that of Egypt or India. Let us for a mi- 
nute attend to that cradle of genius, and nur- 
sery of the arts. The Grecians were capable 
of great exertions both of body and mind.* 
Their climate was superior to that of Egypt 
or India; but they enjoyed a greater advant- 
age; their government was perfectly free. 

* The great difference that was observed between the 
Athenians and the Spartans, in every mark of intellectual 
powers, could not be caused by any difference in their ori- 
gin, language or climate; it was entirely caused by the 
different spirit of their respective governments. The 
government of Athens was perfectly free ; but the military 
discipline of Sparta was in a state of constant enmitv with 
Science and the liberal arts*. 



( 12© ) 



What was the consequence? We know that 
the Grecians, in a few centuries, far sur- 
passed every other nation in science and in 
arts. They were great in every thing they 
attempted; but the progress of knowledge 
in the Grecian republics, was checked by 
the sword of Alexander; it was destroyed 
by the legions of Rome. As the leaves of 
a sensitive plant shrink from the touch of 
man, so does science shrink beneath the 
sword of a tyrant. At this hour we neither 
find genius nor learning in Greece, 

After this short view of Egypt, India, and 
Greece, it can hardly be excusable to speak 
of America as a country in which the intel- 
lects of the human race sink into a pigmy 
form. No man will say that Greece is a 
country in which the human race naturally 
degenerate. The birth place of Homer, 
Pindar, Demosthenes, Hypocrates, Zeuxes, 
and Apelles, cannot be mentioned as the 
grave of genius; but the inhabitants of that 
region have no pretensions, at present, to 
any superiority over the American Indians. 
It appears from every light in which we 
have been able to view the subject, that a 
certain degree of political liberty has always 



( 127 ) 



been necessary to the increase of learning ; 
for it is absolutely certain that conquest and 
subjection have never failed to depress the 
intellectual powers, and extinguish the light 
of science. 

« Jove made it certain, that whatever day 

« Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away. 5 ' 

The time may come in which the inha- 
bitants of Europe, in its most enlightened 
parts, shall again be compelled to grope 
their way in the night of darkness. If the 
sword of a despot should ever be stretched 
over their heads, their intellects will not fail 
to suffer an eclipse. 

It may possibly be conjectured, that Cla= 
vigero, Boturini, and other Spanish writers, 
did not comprehend the true meaning of the 
hieroglyphical writings, or the historical 
paintings of the primitive inhabitants of 
Mexico; for it must be admitted, that the 
present degraded state of the natives ren- 
ders the story to which I have alluded 
somewhat improbable; but that story obtain? 
support from the discoveries that have lately 
been made upon the waters of the river Ohio. 
By those discoveries, it is clear that, the In- 



( 128 ) 

dians, the inhabitants of those regions, are 
exceedingly degenerated. They had for- 
merly attained a considerable degree of ci- 
vilization, for there was a time in which they 
supported themselves by agriculture, and 
had some knowledge of the use of metals.* 
No historian that I have seen, has suffi- 
ciently accounted for the great dissimilarity 
that appeared between the Peruvians and the 
Mexicans, three hundred years ago. Those 
nations, as I conceive, originated in differ- 
ent parts of the world. The Peruvians may 
have migrated from the southern parts of 
Asia. I think it may be said, with a con- 
siderable degree of confidence, that they 
came from India. According to this hypo- 
thesis, if the Peruvians were not more im- 
proved in the arts than the Mexicans, they 
should have been, at least in their manners, 
less sanguinary or cruel, and they should 
have differed greatly in their religious cere- 
monies, from men who were of Tartar ori- 
gin. The supposition that South-America'' 
was peopled from the southern parts of Asia, 
is rendered very probable by the discoveries 



* See proofs and explanations IX 



( V29 ) 



lately made in the southern hemisphere. 
There now appears to he a chain of islands 
that extend from the southern part of Ma- 
lacca, above six thousand miles to the east- 
ward, between the tropics. Those islands, 
at a vast distance from any continent, are 
fully inhabited. The original settlers must 
be traced from a distant country; for the 
most visionary philosopher does not allege, 
that a separate race of men was formed for 
the several islands. The artless natives of 
those islands perform all their navigation in 
canoes; it is nevertheless remarkable, that 
Tupeia, one of the most intelligent men 
in Otaheite, could tell the bearings of other 
islands, that were distant above twelve hun- 
dred miles.* This indicates a spirit of great 
adventure in men who have no decked ves- 
sels, nor the assistance of a compass. The 
settlement of those islands by men from Asia, 
for such is their origin, as appears by their 
language, would have appeared a more na= 
tural event, if they had been to the leeward 
of Borneo or the Philippine islands, but 
they are to the windward; regard being had 



* Dr. Forster 
1$ 



i 130 ) 



lo buch of them as lie within the tropics. 
From this circumstance, it is probable, that 
those people had availed themselves of the 
westerly winds that prevail in the South Sea, 
at no great distance from the equator, during 
their winter months. By the help of such 
winds, they may have gained their easting.* 
Some of the tropical islands that are fully 
peopled, are not more than nine hundred 
miles trom South-America. The same spirit 
of adventure, or the same accident, that 
peopled the New-Hebrides, New-Zealand, 
and the Society Islands, may have peopled 
South-America; and it would have been 
strange, considering the magnitude of the 
continent, if some cause or some accident 
had not thrown people upon it. We have 
recent proofs, that the southern ocean, within 
the tropics, may be navigated to a great dis- 
tance in an open boat.-f And the people 
who inhabit the small islands in the South 

* The winds in latitude 17 south, are frequently at south- 
west; but the trade winds in the ocean seldom extend be = 
yond the 20th degree of latitude. Cafitain Cooke. 

f Lieutenant Bligh, in the year 1789, being driven From 
iiis ship by a mutinous crew, effected his safety, by sail- 
ing above three thousand miles in an open boat, 23 feet 
long. 1 



( 131 ) 



Sea, must be in the practice of making long 
voyages in their open canoes, else they could 
not tell the bearings of an island twelve hun 
dred miles distant. 

In this manner the islands in the South 
Sea must have been peopled, if navigation 
and science among the Asiatics had always 
been in their present imperfect state: but 
those people are greatly degenerated ; and it 
has become probable, if not certain, from 
recent discoveries, that the islands in the 
South Sea were settled by colonies more 
learned than the present inhabitants, and 
well acquainted with navigation. By the 
extensive intercourse lately established be- 
tween Europe and the Indies, it is ascer- 
tained that the Hindoos were formerly great 
proficients in mathematical knowledge. The 
world is indebted to them for decimal arith- 
metic; and they were for many ages better 
astronomers than could be found in any co- 
temporary nation. They were bounded by 
the ocean, understood the principles of na- 
vigation, and were capable of conducting 
vessels to any part of the world; but they 
were natives of a warm climate, and would 
be the less disposed to visit high latitudes. 



t 132 ) 



and cold regions. They knew in what lati- 
tudes they should search for easterly or west- 
erly winds; and by those men, the South 
Sea, in all the warm or temperate climates, 
was fully explored. Such are the opinions 
that presented themselves, whenever it was 
known that the inhabitants of Asia, between 
the tropics, were good mathematicians and 
astronomers; but we are now assured that 
such reasonings on the subject are not chi- 
merical; for a probable inference has be- 
come certain by modern discoveries. We 
are told by late navigators, that the language 
of the Malays is spoken by people in gene- 
ral, who inhabit the tropical islands in the 
South Sea. By this circumstance alone, 
their descent is fully established; and from 
this it appears that there was a time when 
those people were versed in the practice of 
navigation. When I say that the islands in 
the South Sea were peopled from the south- 
ern parts of Asia, and were peopled by men 
well versed in navigation, the present igno- 
rance of those people cannot be urged in 
opposition to that hypothesis. Those islands 
were certainly planted many ages ago; a 
length of time in which they may have lost, 



( 133 ) 



or rather they must have lost all traces of 
science, considering the limited knowledge 
of the original colonists,* their want of me- 
tals, their detached small societies, and the 
absence of every motive, by which the ex- 
ertions of body or mind are usually ex- 
cited. It is fully ascertained that the most 
learned men in India, at this day, do not 
understand the principles of their own as- 
tronomy. Science has forsaken that op- 
pressed nation; but we are left to conjecture 
when it was that the cloud of ignorance be- 
gan to thicken over their heads. Learning 
received a fatal wound in that empire, about 
one thousand years ago, when the Arabs 
conquered the greater part of India. But 
there is reason to believe that the Hindoos 
had attained their utmost perfection in science, 
many ages before the Arabian conquest. The 
most active and most numerous class in that 
nation were prohibited, by their religious 
institutes, from reading the Sastras, the sa- 
cred books; nor is it probable that they had 

* Learning amongst the Hindoos was chiefly confined 
to the Brahmans or Priests, but the Brahmans were prohi- 
bited by the precepts of their religion, from migrating 
The colonists were all of an inferior class. 



\ 



( 13* ) 



many other things to read, in a country where 
books were not printed. The Brahmans. 
who were the learned class, had not any far- 
ther incentive to industry, nor object of am- 
bition. They had completely established 
their tyranny over the minds of a deluded 
nation. Having power and riches in their 
hands, indolence and ignorance followed in 
their train. 

When we discover that the inhabitants of 
the parent state, in a great and populous em- 
pire, have long since degenerated and sunk 
into ignorance, although they had all the 
necessary means of preserving their know- 
ledge, we cannot be surprised that the colo- 
nists, less informed, and dispersed as they 
were, should be found in a degraded state. 
I have said, that South-America may have 
been settled from India, and when we con- 
sider the great distance to which those people 
extended their navigation, visiting many lit- 
tle islands, and planting colonies there, we 
cannot reasonably suppose that they did not 
also reach the coast of America, as it lies in 
the same direction, and is infinitely more 
extensive. It has also been observed, that 
as the inhabitants of India were, many of 



( 135 ) 



them, good astronomers, well acquainted with 
the principles of navigation, and nearly sur- 
rounded by the sea; they must have turned 
their attention to navigation; because all na- 
tions, in proportion to their knowledge, or 
their situation, are known to have tempted 
the ocean. This at least was a natural in- 
ference; but we have direct proofs that the 
Hindoos were deeply concerned in maritime 
commerce. In the Vedas, that are supposed 
to contain all knowledge, human and divine, 
there is an ordinance regulating the interest 
that may be taken for money, in all cases, 
with an exception in favour of mercantile 
adventures at sea* This exception is neces- 
sary to the protection of commerce, and it is 
sanctioned by the experience of all commer- 
cial nations: though it did not find a place in 
the code of British jurisprudence before the 
reign of Charles the First. No such law could 
have been made in a nation that did not ex- 
perience the need of it. And a nation, thus 
concerned in extensive navigation, has never 
failed to establish colonies. From this detail 
it is highly probable, that the Peruvians were 



* Sir William Jones's Dissertation on the Hindoo*, 



( 136 ) 



a colony from the southern part of Asia; but 
there are other facts by which it is rendered 
nearly certain, that they traced their descent 
from a branch of the Hindoos. The emper- 
ors of Peru were descended, as they alleged, 
from the sun; and the incas, or royal family, 
would never contaminate their blood by in- 
termarriages with other families. The wor- 
ship of the sun originated among the Per- 
sians; thence it was brought to India. From 
India, it seems to have passed with the first 
colonists into Peru; for the sun was the chief 
object of religious worship among the Peru- 
vians. It was doubtless understood by some 
of those people, that their ancestors worship- 
ped the sun; and the man who obtained the 
chief rank among them, which he acquired 
by superior talents, would naturally desire to 
entail that rank on his family. For this pur- 
pose he adopted the most happy expedient. 
He traced his descent from that divinity 
whom their ancestors worshipped. He did 
more, he traced his descent from a long race 
of kings, by whom their ancestors had been 
governed; whence it followed that he had 
a divine right to govern. Whoever his an- 
cestors may have been, he ventured to assert, 



( 137 ) 

and his subjects believed that he was of the 
royal family; a descendant of the sun. We 
are taught by the Vedas, that in every day 
of Brahma, which is four thousand three 
hundred and twenty millions of years, four- 
teen Menus, or divine persons, are vested 
with power to govern the earth in succession. 
The first Menu, who reigned in the present 
day of Brahma, was surnamed Swayamb- 
huva, or son of the Self-existent. He re- 
ceived the Vedas, the institutes of civil and 
religious duties, from Brahma himself. They 
are of great antiquity, above one thousand 
nine hundred and sixty millions of years: 
From him, the present family of men are 
descended. This race is called the Latos 
creation ; for it was preceded by many other 
creations. During the reign of the seventh 
Menu, the earth was drowned by a flood, 
and the whole race of men was destroyed, 
©xcept the reigning prince and his wife, and 
seven pious men, who were saved with him 
in a large vessel. This Menu was surnamed 
Vaivaswata, or child of the sun. Ten chil- 
dren were born to him after the flood. Ila, 
one of his daughters, married Buddha, who 
was the son of the moon. From the oldest 

19 



( 138 ) 



son of Vaivaswata, and the oldest son of 
Buddha, two royal families descended, who 
reigned in different parts of India. One fa- 
mily were called children of the sun, the 
other were children of the moon. Roma, 
who reigned in Ayodha, was the last king 
of the children of the sun who reigned in 
the silver age.* He is said to have promoted 
navigation and commerce, and he was more 
distinguished by his military achievements, 
than any other prince in that empire. His 
name is revered among the Hindoos, and, 
like Jupiter or Saturn of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, he is worshipped by them as a deity. 
Sita was the chaste, but unfortunate wife of 
Roma; for she had been forcibly carried off 
by a giant, and established her chastity by 

* The Brahmans allege, that 360 years of mortals 
make one year of the gods, and 1 2,000 of those years make 
a divine age, and 1000 divine ages, make one day of 
Brahma. One divine age, or a period of 4,320,000 years v , 
constitutes four human ages, viz. 

The age of gold, 1,728,000 years, 

The age of silver, 1,296,000 years. 

The age of copper, £64,000 years. 

The age of clay, 432,000 years. We are now in {he age 
of clay, or age of misery, that seems to have begun a little 
more than 1000 years before the Christian era. 



( 139 ) 



the fire ordeal.* The chief festival among 
the Peruvians, was called Romasitoa.-f This 
appellation includes the names of Roma the 
sun-born Hindoo prince, and Sita his wife. 
We can hardly derive a clearer proof that 
the Peruvians were a colony from India. 
The different Hindoo casts or classes, were 
not found in Peru, for the whole colony 
doubtless belonged to one class. The Chi- 
nese are said to have descended from the mi- 
litary class. It is prqbable that colonists, who 
traversed the ocean, were entirely of the 
mercantile tribe, the Bhyse class. 

The emperors of Peru, though they were 
not descended from the sun,* gave better 
proofs of their divine right to govern, than 
any other race of princes, recorded in his- 
tory. They were the parents of their peo- 
ple, not their masters, tyrants, and scourges. 
That happy soil and climate has produced a 
phenomenon, which is without a parallel in 
history; a superstitious nation, who were 
not cruel; a despotic prince, who was not 
a tyrant. 

* The ordeal by fire of Ila, is celebrated to this day 
among the Hindoos, in dramatical exhibitions, 
t Sir William Jones. 



( 140 ) 



Every thing we know concerning the ori- 
ginal inhabitants of South-America; their 
progress in arts, the gentleness of their man- 
ners, and the fabulous origin of their princes, 
tends to establish a belief, that they were 
descended from a nation more civilized than 
the Tartars; that they were from the south- 
ern parts of Asia. 

Hitherto our attention has been turned to 
questions in which we are interested as Ame- 
ricans. In the course of these inquiries we 
have not seen any reason to believe that the 
frigid temperature of our atmosphere is im- 
pressed upon every animal production; noi* 
have we discovered that any vicious combi- 
nation of elements prevents the expansion 
of man and beast, and causes them to dege- 
nerate. Neither have we any reason to be- 
lieve that a new and inferior race of men 
was created for America. On the contrary, 
the arguments by which America, and the 
original men of America, have been de- 
graded, are so badly supported by observa- 
tion or reason, that we are induced to look 
for some powerful motive by which certain 
historians and philosophers, elegant writers 
and men of genius, could be seduced from 



( HI ) 



their usual attention to facts, and their habits 
of correct reasoning. The pride of disco- 
very may have tempted some writers to find 
what does not exist, a new race of men. 
The pride of country may have induced 
others to regard their own climate and their 
own complexion, as having no rivals in na- 
ture. Other historians, without sinister views, 
may have yielded to a fashionable opinion; 
but the prevailing motive with certain writers, 
appears to have been a desire to subvert the 
Mosaic history, and with it the Christian re- 
ligion. This desire is not concealed by the 
gentlemen to whom I refer, as they have oc- 
casionally digressed from the original subject, 
for this very purpose. Does the historian 
give us " Sketches of the history of man?" 
Does he give us " The political and philoso- 
phical history of settlements, and trade in the 
Indies?" Or does he contemplate the ruins 
of a splendid city?* The Christian religion 
is constantly in his way; it must be assailed, 
or he seems to have written in vain. Is it 
the love of truth that induces such men to 
wage constant war against the Christian faith : 



* Karnes, Rayual, aiid Volne'y 



( 142 ) 



There are a thousand errors in which the 
greater part of our species are constantly 
wandering; but those philosophers are little 
disquieted by that consideration. How does 
it happen, that a single error, which is called 
a fable, should give them so much offence? 
Let us suppose for a moment, that the Chris- 
tian is mistaken in his opinion, and may be 
disappointed in his hopes. Does it consist 
with our ideas of kindness and humanity, to 
correct his error; an error that is inoffen- 
sive through life, and comfortable at the 
hour of death ? Is it a benevolent work, to 
steal their only treasure from the sons of op- 
pression ? To add desperation to poverty, 
and misery to affliction ? To root up and 
destroy a pleasant vine that bears delicious 
fruit, for the sake of planting a noxious or 
a barren shrub ? Does it consist with the love 
of virtue, to vilify and traduce the most pure, 
perfect and sublime system of morality* 

* When I speak of the perfection of Christian morals, 
I refer to the examples and precepts of Christ and his 
Apostles; but I protest against every objection that may be 
adduced from the frauds, debaucheries, and cruelties of 
men who falsely called themselves Christians. There was 
a time in which a Christian and a good man were nearly 
synonimous terms. Honours and emoluments were not at- 



£ 143 ) 



that ever was published, and to substitute in its 
place, " the light of nature/' that camelion 
of a law without a penalty; that flexible 
rule, that fits itself to every prevailing pas- 
sion. Whatever the motive of such philo- 
sophers may be, the natural tendency of their 
labour is to destroy the foundation of moral 
obligation, and to remove the fear of God, 
without which there never was a virtuous 
nation, nor ever was there a government well 
supported; without which, it will soon ap- 
pear, that " virtue is but a name/' and oaths 
are useless trifles. I address myself, on this 
occasion, to the citizens of a great republic; 
to men who know that the loss of private 
virtue in every free nation, has been the in- 

tached to the name. The case has been different, ever since 
the civil magistrate thought fit to invade the functions of 
his Maker, by rewarding thoughts instead of actions. From 
the time in which the profession of Christianity became 
fashionable at courts, that venerable character has been 
usurped by the most profligate hypocrites. If the time 
should return, of which a few symptoms have appeared in 
Europe, when atheism, or the worship of Jupiter and the 
minor deities, should again be cherished by the fashion oi 
courts, there will be a more perfect agreement than we 
observe at present, between the profession and the prar. 
tice of Christianity; and the number of sincere Christian? 
may not be diminished. 



( 144 ) 



fallible presage of its political slavery. The 
progress of infidelity, or the disbelief of a 
future state of rewards and punishments, has 
been followed in every nation, by profligacy 
of manners; for it is vain and foolish to sup- 
pose, that men will regard an oath, who do 
not count themselves in the presence of an 
invisible judge.* In this persuasion I shall 
not deviate, without sufficient cause, and 
numerous examples, while I take a short 
view of the most colourable argument, by 
which some modern historians have at- 
tempted to invalidate the Mosaic history of 
man. That I may the more confidently ex- 
pect the reader's excuse for this digression, 
the more detailed historical facts shall be 
thrown into the form of notes. 

The general appearance of the human 
race, their difference from one another in 
shape and colour, have been urged as a 
proof that they are not all descended from 
the same ancestors. 

The appearance of the earth, or its con- 
stituent parts, has also been urged as a proof 

* The Grecians were so thoroughly corrupted, as Poly- 
bius tells us, by the doctrine of Epicurus, that no confidence 
could be put in their engagements. 



( 145 ) 



of great antiquity, which far exceeds the 
short duration of six thousand years, as stated 
by Moses. 

The great antiquity of certain nations, 
who are said to have existed many thousands 
of years before the creation, as described by 
Moses, has been alleged in direct opposition 
to his chronology. 

The first of those objections has been con- 
sidered. The second objection is specious, 
but not solid, for the clearest marks of anti- 
quity that have been alleged, do not affect 
the question. The deep and extensive masses 
of marble, chalk, limestone, and other cal- 
careous bodies, that are to be seen in every 
part of the globe; the numerous and thick 
strata of fossil coals, that are found in dif- 
ferent parts of the earth, have been stated as 
a proof of its great duration. Mountains of 
limestone and marble, immense bodies of 
chalk and marie, are found in Siberia, Swe- 
den, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, 
England, and every other part of the habit- 
able world. If we suppose, with some of 
the moderns,* that all calcareous bodies are 



* Or. Huttonj &c. 
29 



( 146 ) 



formed ironi the shells, bones, or other exu- 
viae of different animals, a countless dura- 
tion of years would be fully established ; for 
it is believed that nearly one fourth part of 
the discoverable earth is calcareous. This 
argument, however, is not conclusive, for 
diere is reason to believe that calcareous earth 
is an original substance, from which shells 
and bones are formed; but not vice versa. 
This kind of earth abounds in marine plants,, 
and in the waters of the ocean* that give 
sustenance to fish ; it is also a constituent part 
of the food of all terrestrial animals. For 
these and similar reasons, it may be ques- 
tioned whether the existing quantity of cal- 
careous earth has ever been increased by the 
growth of animals. 

It has been supposed that fossil coals are 
formed from vegetables that have been co- 
vered in the earth. This hypothesis is urged 
as a proof of great antiquity. The quantity 
of coals that has already been discovered is 
very great. They are found in all countries 
where fuel is in much request. They lie 
stratum below stratum, to a depth that has 
not been ascertained. A stratum was long 
since found in the Austrian Netherlands., 



( 147 ) 



that was 800 yards below the surface. The 
strata of eoals lie parallel to one another, at 
the distance of 100 or 200 feet, and they 
are separated by strata of slate, limestone, 
gravel, and sundry kinds of earth. Twenty 
strata have been wrought in the vicinity of 
Liege. They differ in thickness from two 
feet to forty. It is admitted that timber has 
sometimes been found below the surface^ 
converted into coals; but a few instances of 
petrolated wood, cannot be given as a proof 
that fossil coals are usually formed of vege- 
tables. The quantity of bitumen that is daily 
discharged from springs and lakes, affords a 
sufficient proof, that the earth abounds in 
that substance ; and it is clear that the in- 
flammable part of coals is bitumen. The 
ashes of all vegetables afford an alkali; but 
none is found in the ashes of common fos- 
sil coals; from which it is clear that they 
are not vegetable productions. 

Another argument in favour of the great 
duration of the earth, is taken from the 
abundance of marine productions that are 
found in every part of the world. Marine 
shells are found in the Alpine rocks, rn the 
Pyrenees, and in the hills of Barbary. In 



( 1*8 ) 



the mountains of Tyrole and Calabria; in 
those of Lybia, China, Persia, Syria, and 
all the great mountains cf America. Nu- 
merous bones of the elephant* and rhinoce- 

* It may be suspected that the large bones which have 
at sundry times been dug up in Siberia, were the bones of 
that family of quadrupeds, of which an entire carcase has 
lately been found near Yakoutska, and which had formerly 
been numbered among the inhabitants of North-America. 
But if the bones of the elephant and rhinoceros have been 
found in Siberia, as the observers have confidently asserted, 
it is an incident that cannot be accounted for by any tenable 
hypothesis, except by recurring to a great and general de- 
luge. But how could it happen that the bones of sundry 
animals should be found above 2000 miles distant from 
their native climate? This question is solved by alleging, 
what is nearly certain, that when " the fountains of the 
great deep were broken up," the chief lacerations were 
made in the southern hemisphere, and the waters rushed 
with a strong current to the northward. In that case they 
carried with them the carcases of many quadrupeds. Upon 
the supposition of such a current, it may be objected that 
the ark would have been swept to the northern regions. 
This was doubtless the case; but the ark being a lofty ves- 
sel, was driven back by a strong northerly wind that had 
not the same effect upon bodies which hardly appeared 
above the surface. We are told that « God made a wind 
to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged." The 
shattered remains of the great southern continent have 
chiefly disappeared, leaving only a few small islands, that 
may also disappear, unless some mighty earthquake should 
restore the sunken lands. 

Although the story of a general deluge is well supported 



( 149 ) 



ros are said to have been found in Siberia, 
at some depth below the surface, From 
these circumstances it is clear, that great re- 
volutions have taken place on the surface of 
the earth, which seem to indicate a vast du- 
ration. It is presumed that much of the 
land upon which the ocean dwells, was for- 
merly subjected to the plow; for it is clear 
that much of the present dry land has been 
covered by water. But these phenomena, 
in their utmost extent, are not unfriendly to 
the chronology of Moses; they rather lend 
it their support; for they seem to have been 

by history and tradition, some philosophers have questioned 
where such a quantity of water could be found. And some 
critics have deemed the story fabulous, because the dove 
is said to have plucked an olive leaf in a country that is too 
eold at present for the production of olives. The first 
difficulty is removed by observing, that the flood was a mi- 
raculous event. It could not have rained forty days and 
forty, nights over the whole earth, unless the water had 
been created in the atmosphere. The water thus produced, 
to say nothing of that which rushed from the bowels of the 
earth, was equal to all the effects described. It will not 
be questioned that olive trees may have grown, not on a 
mountain, but a plain, in the latitude of mount Ararat, 38 
degrees; when it is considered that Asia, before the flood, 
was in a state of high cultivation, and that the northern 
regions, in all probability, were less elevated, and there- 
fore less cold than at present. 



( 150 ) 



caused by that very deluge which is men- 
tioned by the sacred historian. 

The great antiquity of certain nations who 
are said to have existed many thousand years 
before the creation, as described by Moses, 
has been urged in direct contradiction to the 
Mosaic history. This objection, specious as 
it may be, and fitted to the taste of men who 
are delighted with romantic stories, cannot 
endure the test of serious examination. 

Passing over the Americans, who have 
the appearance of being lately planted, we 
find no trace of antiquity upon the other 
continent. In that original habitation of 
men we trace them, in a few centuries, to 
a state of infancy and ignorance. We dis- 
cover marks of novelty in every art or sci- 
ence that is the fruit of experience. The 
arts that are ornamental or useful in life; 
those by which knowledge is acquired, ex- 
tended or preserved; every thing valuable 
among men is modern, when compared with 
the globe they inhabit.* Our ancestors in 

* When I speak of the short duration of the human 
race, compared with the obvious antiquity of the globe, I 
must be understood to refer to the posterity of Noah, the 
parent of the present race. 



( 151 ) 



Europe were painted savages eighteen hun- 
dred years ago, like the present race of 
American Indians. The Romans at that 
period regarded other nations as barbarians; 
but looking back seven hundred years far- 
ther, we find the Romans a set of savage, 
unlettered robbers. The Grecians were the 
first people in Europe who distinguished 
themselves by arts and literature; but the 
Grecians had attained their utmost perfection 
in knowledge about six hundred years before 
the Christian era, although they had been 
perfect barbarians a few centuries before that 
epoch. In the days of Homer they had not 
discovered the use of iron. Their philoso- 
phy began with the fables of iEsop; and 
those fables seem to have travelled from 
India. The Grecians were indebted to the 
Egyptians for a considerable part of their 
learning; but four thousand years have not 
passed since the Egyptian monarchy was 
founded. The Egyptians borrowed the 
greater part of their knowledge from the 
Hindoos, or their ancestors, the Chaldeans. 
Our heathen ancestors, the Goths, Vandals,* 

* The Scandinavians worshipped Woden, Frea, and 
Thor ; but Woden was Budha of India, Fo of Ghina 3 Taut 



( m ) 



and the more polished Romans and Grecians, 

of Phenicia, and Mercury of Greece. The Hindoos had 
their Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva; the creating, preserv- 
ing, and destroying deities. The Persians had their Oro- 
masdes, Mithras and Ahrimanes, Creator, Preserver and 
evil spirit. The Egyptians had their Osiris, Cneph and 
Ptha, sun, spirit and flame. Osiris and Isis of the Egyp- 
tians begat Horus, light. Horus, with his numerous darts, 
slew the serpent. This was Hydra of the Greeks, who 
was slain by Hercules. Sheshenaga of the Hindoos was 
the king of serpents. Janus, a god of the Romans, was 
the beginning and founder of all things ; and Genesa of the 
Hindoos is invoked at the beginning of every enterprize. 
Janus, who saw behind and before, was no other divinity 
than Noah, who saw both worlds. Jupiter, of the Romans, 
was attended by an eagle, and by Ganimede, a beautiful 
boy. Veeshnu, of the Hindoos, is described in his tem- 
ples, riding upon an eagle, and attended by a little page. 
Juno is attended by a peacock; and Parvati, the wife of 
Seeva, of India, is attended by her son, who rides upon a 
peacock. All those whimsical deities must have sprung 
from the same root. Zenoras, speaking of the religion of 
the Greeks, says, " All things came from Chaldea to 
Egypt, and from thence were derived to the Greeks." In 
this remarkable agreement among so many nations, of dif- 
ferent language and colour, about those arbitrary and ficti- 
tious objects of worship, we discover a powerful argument 
in favour of the general deluge. « All flesh had corrupted 
his way/' The sons of Noah were acquainted with the 
idolatry of the old world, and in a few generations, their 
posterity, the children of Shem not excepted, had almost 
universally become idolators. As they had all sprung- 
within three or four generations from the same stock, they 
all returned to the- same abominable idolatry, to the idols 
of the antediluvian world. 



( 153 j 



borrowed their fabulous divinity, their ob- 
jects of worship, and manner of dividing 
time, from the Hindoos. But the Hindoos 
may also be traced to a state of infancy.* 

* Cayumenes ascended the throne of Persia about eight 
hundred years before the Christian era, and the Mahaba- 
dian dynasty had existed in Persia long before the reign of 
Cayumenes. We are taught by learned Persians, that 
Mahabad the first monarch of that dynasty, left a book 
of regulations, by which he divided the people into four 
classes, the religious, military, commercial, and servile. 
This book he pretended to have received from the Creator 
of the world. The religion of Mahabad took its rise in 
Persia before the conquest of Rama, or the settlement of 
the Brahmans in India. That unnatural division of men 
into four classes prevails in India to this day. The Egyp- 
tians, as Diodorus Siculus tells us, were formerly divided 
into four classes. It is not improbable that a similar divi- 
sion of men into classes prevailed in the world before the 
flood ; or rather that particular trades were exercised in 
particular families, and in them only. We are told that all 
musicians were descended from Jubal, and all workers in 
metal from Tubal-Cain, another of Lantech's sons, who 
was the fifth in descent from Cain. I presume that Maha- 
bad was the common name of Cush, the son of Ham : for 
it will hardly be questioned, that Rama, the son of Cush, 
was the founder of the different classes of men in India. 

In the primitive language of the Hindoos we find ano- 
ther proof of their Persian origin. The Vedas, their sa- 
cred books, are written in Sanscrit, a dead language. But 
there was a language called Zend, of Caldaic origin, in 
use about twelve hundred years ago by priests and philoso- 
phers in the Persian empire. It was at that time a dear!, 

21 



( 154 ) 



They migrated from Persia, the cradle of 
the human race. This humble and degrad- 
ed nation, so little celebrated in history, so 
little practised in the art of destroying one 
another, were long since splendid in arts, 
happy in government, wise in legislation 
and eminent in knowledge. Coming from 
a colder climate, they brought with them 
a stock of knowledge, which they improv- 
ed in a happy soil. 

This short and general view of the hu- 
man race, perfectly agrees with the history 
of the Jewish legislator. It implies a simi- 
lar duration of the family. Though this 
chronology has been assailed by critics and 
philosophers, who, trusting in the credulity* 

language. By comparing those two languages together, 
it appears, that seven words in ten of the Zend are also 
found in the Sanscrit. Sir William Jones. 

Hence it follows, that the Chaldaic and Sanscrit sprang 
from the same root, and those nations from the same an- 
cestors. The Sanscrit language is said, by Sir William 
Jones, to be of wonderful construction, perfect, copious, 
and exquisitely refined. I suspect that it includes the only 
remains of the antediluvian language. I suspect also, that 
the Hindoos were indebted to the antediluvians for their 
astronomical knowledge, as well as for their system of my- 
thology, and their abstinence from flesh. 

* The author of a book, lately circulated with great in- 
dustry, (Ruins of Palmira) must have confided very mnc h 



( 155 ) 



of their readers, have ventured to assert, 
without proof, and teach without informa- 

in the credulity and ignorance of his readers, else he would 
not have asserted, that the Jews had no idea of the immor- 
tality of the soul, before the Babylonian captivity. They 
borrowed that opinion, as he alleges, from the Persian 
Magi, during their captivity. He should have presumed* 
that some of his readers might chance to read the Bible, 
in which they would discover, that Moses, who wrote above 
eight hundred years before the captivity, spoke of Enoch, a 
just man, who walked with God, and was translated. He 
also spoke of angels, who are usually invisible spirits. So- 
lomon too, when he speaks of death, (and he wrote four 
hundred years before the captivity,) makes this pointed ob- 
servation : " Then shall the dust return to the earth as il 
" was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." In 
another place, he says, " The wicked is driven away in his 
" wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.'* 
David also says, " God will redeem my soul from the power 
« of the grave." We cannot conceive how it was that a 
man of talents and learning, for such is Volney, should 
have committed himself, by groundless assertions, unless 
we suppose that he was prevented, by early prejudice, 
from reading the Bible, and had been deceived by some 
faithless writer, who pretended to have read it. 

The pretensions of certain nations to great antiquity, 
may be refuted in the most satisfactory manner. It may 
be sufficient to mention the Chinese, Hindoos, and Egyp- 
tians. 

The Chinese pretend to a regular chronology of prin- 
ces, that extends far beyond the flood of Noah. They al- 
lege that Fo-hi, the head of their race, was the son of a 
goddess, who, walking on the bank of a river, was encir- 
cled by a rainbow ; and after twelve years was delivered of 



C 156- ) 



tion, it bears the test of criticism, and ac- 
quires strength from opposition. 

a son. This son of a rainbow is doubtless a fabulous prince ; 
and Confucius himself, the great Chinese legislator, can- 
didly admits, that before the third dynasty, i. e. about ele- 
ven hundred years before Christ, " for want of evidence" 
he could give no certain account of his nation. 

The Hindoos have, by far, the highest pretences to an- 
tiquity. The Vedas, their sacred books, are said to have 
been received from Brahma himself, about nineteen hun- 
dred and sixty millions of years ago. But no reasonable 
person can read their account of divine and human ages 
without perceiving that the whole is founded upon some 
astronomical enigma. The basis of their divine age is 
432 ; but this number multiplied by 60, their usual mea- 
sure of time, makes 25920, the great astronomical year; 
or the time in which, by their account, a fixed star performs 
a complete revolution, moving to the eastward 50 seconds 
in the year. It is admitted by the Hindoos, that the Vedas 
were composed or collected by Vayasa, an excellent as- 
tronomer. But the daughter of Ganga, a priest, who was 
distinguished by her piety, is addressed in one of the Ve- 
das. It must have been composed in her life-time ; and 
there is sufficient proof that Ganga lived at the beginning 
ef the age of clay, about one thousand and seventeen years 
before the Christian era. We can hardly desire a better 
proof, that all their pretences to great antiquity are fa- 
bulous. 

Certain astronomical tables have lately been mentioned, 
in proof of great antiquity, for they are said to have been 
constructed before the flood. Two sets of tables, for calcu- 
lating eclipses, have been imported from India. One from 
Tarvalore, on the Coromandel coast, the other from Chrish- 
nabouran, in the Carnatic. 



: 



( 157 ) 

The pretences of the oldest, and most re- 
spectable nations, to great antiquity, cannot 

The epoch of the Ghrishnabouran tables goes back to 
the 10th of March, 1491, of our era, when the sun and 
moon entered the moveable zodiac. The epoch of the Tar- 
valore tables goes back to the 18th of February, 3102 years 
before our era, or 753 years before the flood of Noah. Are 
the Tarvalore tables calculated from observations made at 
the time ? May they not have been calculated from obser= 
vations or tables of a later epoch? The fixed stars have an 
apparent motion to the eastward, so that their distance in- 
creases every year, from the sun's place in the equinox. 
Their annual motion at present is about 50" 20'" ; it was 
less formerly. The obliquity of the ecliptic submits also 
to changes. It is now decreasing. The moon's motion is 
accelerated and retarded in turns. As the obliquity of the 
ecliptic, and length of the trophical year, have been de- 
creasing, and the moon's motion increasing, near 5000 
years, we can easily discover, how the Tarvalore tables 
may have gone back, to a fictitious epoch, six or eight cen? 
turies before the flood, without any material errors ; but 
considerable errors must have appeared, if they had gone 
back fifteen hundred years farther, unless their theory and 
instruments had been very correct ; because they would 
have reached a period in which the length of the tropical 
year and the obliquity of the ecliptic should have been in- 
creasing, and the moon's motion decreasing. Whatever 
the time may have been, in which those observations were 
made, the tables bear internal evidence that one set of them 
is fictitious. The Ghrishnabouran tables make the moon's 
motion less than the Tarvalore tables ; but the moon's mo- 
tion has been increasing near five thousand years ; hence it 
follows that tables made from the oldest observations should 
make the moon's motion less than tables from observations 



( 158 ) 

have any weight, in an argument of serious 
import; for those pretences, when examin- 

made at a subsequent epoch. Therefore the Chrishna- 
bouran tables are older than those of Tarvalore, or made 
from prior observations, though they do not pretend to 
equal antiquity. No evidence can arise from such tables 
inconsistent with the Mosaic history. It is known that a 
good mathematician, possessed of a correct theory, may 
construct tables from fictitious observations for any epoch 
he thinks fit. 

The Egyptians set up great claims to antiquity ; but those 
claims do not bear the test of examination. We are told by 
Philo of Biblos, that Taut^ removing from Phenicia, esta- 
blished an empire in upper Egypt, where he instructed 
the people in astronomy, music, and letters. He was suiv 
named Hermes, and was succeeded, at the interval of four 
hundred years by another person of the same name, who 
seems to have been contemporary with Abraham. Thales 
of Myletus, who lived about six hundred years before the 
Christian era, began his astronomical studies in Phenicia, 
whence he travelled into Egypt. Pythagoras, a scholar of 
Thales, studied in Egypt, where he fell into the hands of 
Chombyses, and was carried a prisoner to Babylon, five hun- 
dred and twenty-five years before the Christian era. In Ba- 
bylon he studied under Zoroaster, the great reformer of 
the Persian Magi. From Babylon he visited the Brah- 
mans in India, where he improved in the knowledge of 
astronomy. By the Brahmans he was taught the im- 
mortality of the soul and the doctrine of transmigration, 
Viasa, who lived in India before the age of Pythagoras, 
taught the immortality of the soul, as appears by the 
Geeta. (Sir William Jones) Although many of the Gre- 
cian philosophers travelled to Egypt, in quest of know- 
ledge, they knew that the Egyptians had imported their 



( 159, ) 



ed with attention, are found in every case, 
to be false and fabulous. They vanish into 

astronomy from Babylon. " Durat adhuc ibi Jovis Beli 
• ; templum. 'Inventor hie fuit sideralis scientise." Plin. 
hist. nat. " The tern file of Belus remains there (in Ba~ 
u by Ion J to this hour. He was the inventor of astronomy." 
Pythagoras was instructed by the Brahman s in the true 
motions of the heavenly bodies, now called the Copernican 
system ; but the Grecians disbelieved, or soon forgot, a the- 
ory that was not supported by the senses. There is not any 
record from which it can be inferred that learning is of 
great'antiquity among the Egyptians. But those people in- 
habited a valley, that was fertile beyond example, where- 
fore, in a short time, they became wealthy and vain. The 
pride of a Grecian, who scorned to trace his origin from a 
barbarous nation, induced him to allege, that he was An- 
tochthonus, sprung from the soil on which he lived. The 
Egyptians, by a fictitious chronology, wished to be re- 
garded as the first of nations. We have not any ancient 
history written by an Egyptian, but we have lately been 
told, that the calendar is engraved upon certain pillars, 
or upon the walls of a temple in upper Egypt ; by which it 
would appear that the sun was in the constellation Aqua- 
rius in the middle of June. This would imply a duration 
of twelve or thirteen thousand years. In the temple of 
Tentyra, in upper Egypt, there is a delineation of the zo- 
diac, by which the sun appears in Cancer. If the artist, by 
this position, intended to si gnify, that the sun was in Can- 
cer, at the vernal equinox, he made the temple older by- 
many thousands of years. Are those monuments to be re- 
garded as correct records ; or should they be viewed as 
the fictitious effects of vanity ? They are doubtless to be 
considered in the latter point of view. 

1. Because the whole current of ancient history forbids 



( 160 ) 



air, leaving nothing upon which the mind 
can rest. The general tenor of profane 

us to believe that Egypt was peopled at the time to which 
these monuments refer, 

2. Of all the kingdoms under the sun, Egypt is the last 
that may have been inhabited, twelve or eighteen thousand 
years ago. If that valley had been drained at the time re- 
ferred to, the mud from Abyssinia, and the sand from the 
desert, must have raised the surface above the copious 
watering of the Nile ; or they would have raised the Nile 
far above the level of the ocean. 

3. In the oldest history that exists, we have a satisfactory 
proof, that the monuments in question are fictitious. I 
mean the history of the Jews. I shall be permitted to 
speak of Moses, as we speak of other historians. He was 
a man of talents and erudition. He had been educated in 
Egypt, probably at court. He asserts, that the world had 
not existed more than three thousand years. As he claim-' 
ed to have been divinely inspired, it is not to be supposed 
that he would have put it in the power of the Jews or 
Egyptians to disprove his assertions, or refute his chrono- 
logy. He was acquainted with the Egyptian history, and 
he knew what pretences they had to antiquity. If the sup- 
posed duration of the world had then been greater than 
he stated it, he might have fitted his chronology to the pre- 
vailing opinion. Prudence would have taught him to adopt 
that measure. Is it to be supposed that a wise legislator, 
a respectable historian, and a prudent man, would have en- 
dangered his reputation, by asserting that the human race 
had not existed more than three thousand years, when he- 
knew that he could be refuted by a prevailing opinion, and 
by public monuments, which stated a duration of twelve or 
eighteen thousand years ? We are bound to admit, that no 
such opinions, and no such monuments, existed in Egypt 



( 101 ) 



history, is rather to be considered as a pre- 
sumptive argument in favour of the chro- 

at the time when Moses wrote his history. The Egyp- 
tians did not understand the true motions of the heavenly 
bodies, or length of the year, for many ages after the 
Israelites had escaped from Egypt. This appears from 
Herodotus, who claims our attention. Herodotus was in- 
formed, by the Egyptian priests, as we find in the second 
book of his history, that when Sethos, one of their kings, 
died, there had been three hundred and forty-one kings in 
Egypt, from Menes, their first king (of mortal race), the 
reign of three kings being equal to one hundred years. 
The entire duration of their empire being 11366 years. 
They added, that during that period the sun had deviated 
from his usual course, having twice risen where he used 
to set, and twice gone down where he used to rise. This, 
however, had produced no alteration in the climate of 
Egypt. The fruits of the earth, and the phenomena of 
the Nile, had always been the same ; nor had any extraor- 
dinary or fatal diseases occurred. As the sun has never 
risen in the west, the priests must have meant, that in the 
space of 11366 years the sun had twice risen in the con- 
stellation that was west, or opposite to the sun's rising 
when their empire was founded ; an event that could not 
have happened in less than 37000 years. Such is the time, 
in round numbers, that is required for the vernal equinox 
to perform a complete revolution, and a half revolution, 
through the twelve constellations. The equinoxial points 
advance a little more than two seconds in the year, there- 
fore, though the sun was in the beginning of Aries, at the 
vernal equinox, about 2000 years ago, he is now in the 
beginning of Tourus at that season of the year, and in a 
little more than 25000 years the vernal equinox will be 
found in all the constellations. This is called the annus 

22 



i m ) 

liafogy; of Moses; for there is riot a nation 
under the sun whose history or chronology 

magnus, the great year. The Egyptians had not any know- 
ledge of the great year; for Herodotus was informed by 
those very priests, that " they (the Egyptians) first de- 
" nned the length of the year, dividing it into twelve signs, 
" in which they were guided by the stars. They gave 
(< thirty days to each month, and added five days to every 
" year." By that addition, as they conceived, the circle 
of the seasons returned to the same point. This mistake 
of the Egyptians, respecting the length of the year, pro- 
duced all the phenomena described by the priests. The 
Egyptkn year was too short by five hours forty-eight mi- 
nutes and fifty-seven seconds; but 5k. 48' 57" multiplied 
by 1506, gives 365 days within two hours : hence it follows 
that every year being too short, the following year began 
too soon, and in the course of 1506 years the beginning of 
the year retreated through all the signs in the zodiac. In 
other words, the chief harvest, and the overflowing of the 
Nile, were found in every mdnth of the year, in the space 
of 1506 years: from which the priests, not suspecting the 
truth of their calculations, concluded that the sun, had 
changed his place of rising. According to their account, 
the sun appeared to travel through six constellations in 
753 years; in which case he was said to have risen in the 
west. In 1506 years more he changed the seasons through 
all the months of the year, and was again supposed to rise 
in the west. Thus the sun rose twice in the west in the 
space of 2259 years; that is to say, between the accession 
of the first Egyptian king and the death of Sethon. From 
this it appears that the Egyptians extended their monar- 
chy as far back as they had any knowledge of the human 
race, viz. to the flood, or the birth of Noah. Let it be 
recollected, that Herodotus was in Egypt about 480 years 



( 163 ) 



goes back, with any colour of probability, 
to the time in which the human race, ac- 

before the Christian era, and that Sethon died about 280 
years before that period, viz. about the time in which He- 
zekiah reigned in Jerusalem; but Hezekiah, according to 
the Septuagint and Samaritan copy of the Bible, reigned 
about 2269 years after the flood. From this it would ap- 
pear that the Egyptians extended their monarchy to the 
flood. This extension was not very unreasonable, when 
we consider that Mizraim, the grand-son of Noah, is sup- 
posed to have settled in Egypt? where he began his reign, 
not more than 120 years after the flood. If we take the 
chronology of the common Hebrew copy of the Bible, in- 
stead of the Septuagifit, we shall find that the Egyptians 
extended their monarchy to the birth of Noah, 600 years 
before the flood. 

It has been alleged, by all nations of great antiquity, 
that the earth was forrnerly destroyed by a flood, and that 
their ancestors were men of superior bodily strength, who 
lived to a great age. These concurrent opinions, founded 
upon tradition, have never been well accounted for, except 
by reference to the facts stated by Moses; The Chal- 
deans, Egyptians, Syrians, and Phenicians, were nearly 
agreed in their traditions concerning a general deluge. 
Plato, in his Timeo, speaks of a general deluge, recorded 
in the sacred books of the Egyptians, that happened long 
before the Grecian inundations. Lucian, de dea Syria, 
describes Deucalion as the father of a second race of men, 
who was saved for his piety, in a ship, with all manner of 
beasts. Berosius, a priest of Belus, who wrote of the 
astronomy and philosophy of the Chaldeans, related the 
history of a flood nearly in the words of Moses. Plutarch, 
de solertia animalium, speaking of Deucalion's flood, 
mentions the dove that flew from the ship, in which Deu- 



( 164 ) 



cording to Moses, had its beginning. Every 
thing that has been written concerning prin- 

calion was saved, and returned again. Fo-hi, the proge- 
nitor of the Chinese, is believed by those people, to have 
trained up seven kinds of beasts, some of which he offered 
in sacrifice every year to the Creator of heaven and earth. 
This was doubtless Noah, who took with him, into the 
ark, seven of all clean beasts. The general deluge is de- 
scribed, in the eighth book of the Bhagawata, a sacred 
record of the Hindoos, nearly as follows. At the close of 
the sixth Monwantara, the demon Hayagriva having pur- 
loined the Vedas, the whole race of men became corrupt, 
except seven Richis and Satayavrata, who then reigned 
in Dravina, a maritime country. This prince was per- 
forming his ablutions, when Veeshnu appeared to him in 
the form of a small fish. This fish, after sundry augmen- 
tations, was placed by him in the ocean, from which it 
addressed him thus : « All flesh have offended me, and 
" shall be destroyed; but thou shalt be saved in a capacious 
« vessel. Take, therefore, all kinds of esculent grain 
" for food, and enter the vessel, with the seven Richis and 
" your wives, and a pair of all animals." It disappeared, 
and after seven days the ocean began to overflow the coast, 
and the earth to be flooded with showers, when Satayavrata 
saw a vessel moving towards him. He entered the vessel, 
and was saved. It can hardly be alleged that Moses bor- 
rowed an account of the deluge from the Hindoos, or they 
from him. 

The general belief that formerly prevailed in the world 
concerning the great age and strength of our ancestors, is 
also in perfect agreement with the Mosaic history. We 
are informed, or it follows as a necessary consequence, 
from what we are told by Moses, that there was not any 
rain before the flood. He says, « The Lord God had not 



{ 165 } 



ces or dynasties of princes, of an earlier date, 
is clearly marked by fiction. The stories, 

" caused it to rain upon the earth. But there went up a 
" mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the 
" ground." Moses tells us indeed, in the same place, that 
" there was not a man to till the ground." But we readily 
discover that chronological order is not observed in the 
statement of those facts. The earth was created on the 
third day, and Adam on the sixth. In a narrative so com- 
pressed as to make six short chapters contain the history 
of sixteen hundred years, the historian could not have 
stooped so far as to inform his readers that the earth had 
subsisted, or vegetation was continued two or three days 
without rain. He certainly intended to inform us that 
there was a remarkable epoch, in which the fruits of the 
earth were nourished by the mist or dew, as now they are 
by rain. Had there been any rain before the deluge, there 
must have been a rainbow ; but there was none. Hence it 
followed, that a rainbow, after the flood, was a new phe- 
nomenon. The earth was watered before the deluge, as 
some parts of the Peruvian empire are at present. The 
face of the earth was nearly level, without mountains, 
marshes, or sandy deserts, by which the temperature of 
the air might be altered. If there had been mountains, 
there must have been rain and sudden changes of the at- 
mosphere. There could have been few of those diseases, 
by which the human race are now consumed, upon a globe 
without mountain or large hill, without rain, storm, or 
sudden changes of the weather. In a few centuries after 
the flood, the constitution of man was broken down to the 
present standard, by a sickening climate; Joseph, who 
was the eleventh from Shem, lived only one hundred and 
ten years. In opposition to this theory it may be alleged, 
that Moses says, " The mountains were covered/* He 



( 166 ) 

as they are related, could not possibly be 
true. Neither is there a single monument 
that has been mentioned on the face of the 
earth, pretending to great antiquity, which 
does not bear indisputable marks of forgery 
and falsehood. The oldest profane history 
that has reached our time, fanciful as the 
chronology, or part of it may appear, and 
swollen by Egyptian pride, when carefully 
examined, is found to coincide with the 
Jewish history. 

In the silence of history, we naturally di- 
rect our attention to the documents of oral 
tradition; but there is not a single tradition, 
that has reached our ears, among the nations 
who inhabit this earth, barbarous or civil. 

also says, that " the ark rested upon the mountains pf 
Ct Ararat." The historian could have intended nothing 
more by such expressions than to assure the readers, that 
every pan of the globe, the highest mountains they had 
seen, were covered by water. There was a mountain 
called Ararat, when Moses wrote ; but it does not appear 
that such a name, or such a mountain, existed before the 
flood. When this very writer speaks of a war that four 
kings waged against five, in the days of Abraham, he says, 
« They smote all the country of the Amalakites," mean- 
ing the country that is now so called; but Amalak was 
born, and his name was given to that country after the 
death of Abraham. 



( 161 ) 



from which it can reasonably be inferred 
that the present race of men are of great 
antiquity. On the contrary, the Mosaic his- 
tory perfectly accords with the traditions of 
the most ancient and respectable nations. 
Time and observation, which destroy other 
systems, and subvert other opinions, are giv- 
ing additional strength to the chronology of 
Moses, and the evidence of sacred history. 

Upon a general view of the subject, we 
have not discovered a single argument, 
founded on the colour or shape of the hu- 
man race, on the texture of this globe, or 
upon the histories or traditions of ancient 
nations, by which we can be authorized to 
reject the Mosaic history of man. Every 
argument, on the contrary, and every ap- 
pearance, is in favour of that history. 

Whatever the time may have been, in 
which the human race had its beginning; 
and however the several families may differ, 
at present, from one another, in shape and 
colour, our interest is the same in the origi- 
nal question — Do the human race degene- 
rate in America ? To this question we reply, 
without hesitation, in the negative; since it 
is clear that the arguments, founded upon 



( 158 } 



the supposed causes or instances of degene- 
racy, are not supported by observation. 

It is granted, that upon the old continent 
the inhabitants of one climate and country, 
in many cases, are greatly superior to the 
inhabitants of another climate and country, 
in mental and bodily powers; but we have 
not discovered any foundation, in nature, 
for supposing that Americans, in general, 
should be inferior to the inhabitants of the 
old continent. 

If a distinction may be looked for, in the 
process of time, between the American and 
the native of the old continent; if the inha- 
bitants of either continent are to excel those 
of the other in strength of body or of mind; 
if there is any part of the globe in which 
the human species may be expected to arrive 
at the greatest perfection, I cherish the pleas- 
ing hope, that the favoured place will be 
found in America. 

After I had complained, that historians in 
Europe seem to be influenced by an illiberal 
spirit, or by partiality to their native soil, 
when they speak of America, I have not 
risked a sentiment that is nearly contrasted 
with theirs, without a considerable degree 



( 169 ) 



of hesitation. It may possibly be suspected 
that my wishes alone have given birth to this 
opinion; but the reader shall determine after 
he has considered the following observations 
and facts. 

It has been remarked by historians and 
philosophers of the greatest celebrity,* that 
the distinguishing character of nations is 
formed, in a great measure, by climate, si- 
tuation, and food. Are they weak or strong 
in body; are they indolent or active, cow- 
ardly or brave, mild in disposition or fierce, 
of a quick perception or dull ? The differ- 
ence, in general, is to be explained by the 
difference of the climates in which they live; 
by the form and face of the country they 
inhabit, or the food by which they are nou- 
rished. In warm climates, the inhabitants, 
in general, have a quick perception and 
lively imagination ; but they are fickle and 
indolent, weak in body, and timid. They 
are averse from all hazardous attempts, or 
military operations; because they are defici- 
ent in strength, courage, and activity: hence 
it follows, that in general they become the 

* Hypocrates, Tacitus, Galen, Caesar, Montesquieu, Sec 
23 



( 170 ) 



subjects of political slavery. In Turkey, 
Persia, China, Japan, India, and Africa, we 
find examples, without number, in support 
of this position. In cold climates the inha- 
bitants have less sensibility or genius, but 
they have more activity and more strength 
of body: wherefore they have more courage 
and more steadiness in pursuit of an object; 
they are also more tenacious of their liber- 
ties.* The Germans who migrated to the 
southward, during the convulsions of the 
Roman empire, were strong, brave, and 
free; but in a few generations their strength 
and courage failed, in a warm climate, and 
they surrendered their liberties. In tempe- 
rate climates we look for a favourable com- 
bination of those qualities which predomi- 
nate in the extremes. There we find courage 
and strength, the associates of enterprize, 
activity of mind, clear perception, and sound 
judgment, without the levity and fickleness 
of warm climates. In temperate climates 
the liberal arts may be expected to flourish ; 

* The Tartars in the north of Asia are the only free 
people in that great division of the world, the Arabs per- 
haps excepted, who are, in general, wretchedly poor. 



( 171 ) 



and there we look for a spirit of inquiry, the 
parent of political freedom. Such are the 
most obvious and general effects of climate; 
but those effects are modified by* situation 
and food. The activity and powers of the 
mind are greatly affected by the state of the 
atmosphere. Clear perceptions and correct 
reasonings are promoted by a dry and clear 
atmosphere; but a thick atmosphere, highly 
charged with vegetable exhalations, natu- 
rally produces languor and dullness of per- 
ception. The stupidity of the Beotians, who 
lived in a thick atmosphere, was proverbial 
among the Greeks; people also who lived 
on marshy ground, near the river Phasis, 
were generally dull, as we are told by Hero- 
dotus. To say that a man was, " crasso in 
sere natus," born in a thick atmosphere, 
seems to have been a civil method, among 
the ancient Romans, of calling him a block- 
head. From the necessary effects of a damp, 
thick, and warm atmosphere, it follows, that 
men who live on a dead plain have less 
activity, less strength, less enterprize, and 
less sagacity, than men who inhabit a broken, 
mountainous country, in the same degree of 



( 172 ) 



latitude.* On hilly grounds the atmosphere 
is more light, cool, and pure. In those si- 
tuations men exert themselves with alacrity 
and perseverance. The characters of men, 
who live in similar climates and situations, 
are also affected by the quality of their food. 
Animal food is observed to promote strength 
of body, activity, and courage, verging on 
ferocity ;f but it is not favourable to study or 

* This distinction, so far as it respects the body, takes 
place among quadrupeds. It is observed, that horses who 
are bred on hilly grounds, have more strength, activity,, 
and perseverance than those who are bred upon plains. 

t The unlettered savage, who supports himself by ani- 
mal food, is fierce and barbarous in every case; but men 
who are equally untaught, being supported by vegetable 
food, are commonly of a mild disposition. The savage of 
North-America, who supports himself chiefly by animal 
food, is proverbially fierce and cruel. The Tartars, who 
are little attached to agriculture, have ever been distin- 
guished by their ferocity. The islanders also, in the South 
Sea, who live chiefly upon fish or flesh, are observed to 
be ferocious; but the islanders who are chiefly supported 
by vegetables, as in the Society Islands, are infinitely more 
gentle in their disposition. The Hindoos, who, from re- 
ligious motives, have abstained from animal food, time out 
of mind, are, of all the human race, the most gentle and 
timid; but the military class of that nation, notwithstand- 
ing the common precepts of religion, have been constrain- 
ed to eat flesh, that they might acquire strength and cou- 



( 17S ) 



the powers of the mind. Vegetable food is 
not favourable to personal strength, but it 
promotes sensibility, a mild temper, and clear 
perceptions. It is probable, that a greater 
proportion of animal food is consumed, at 
present, by the Americans, than is, or can 
be obtained, by the civilized inhabitants of 
the other continent: but this distinction will 
not prevail when America, like the greater 
'part of the other continent, shall be fully 
peopled. From a circumstance of this kind, 
which is contingent and mutable, we cannot 
form any reasonable conjectures respecting 
the future character of the Americans. 

The temperature of the climate, the face 
or form of the country, and the quality of 
the atmosphere, are the great and permanent 
causes, by which the character of the Ame- 
rican nations is to be formed. We have seen 
that men of genius and erudition are not to 
be expected in climates that are very warm or 
very cold. Instances there have been, of 

rage. The Arabians have long been distinguished by a 
malicious and revengeful temper; a temper that is thought 
to be produced by the camel's flesh on which they feed ; 
for that animal is remarkably malicious, and tenacious 
of anger. 



( m ) 



fine talents, in climates of both descrip- 
tions, but they were few. 

" Apparent rari nantes in gungite vasto." 

Neither do we look for genius and talents in 
a moderate climate, provided the inhabitants 
are pressed by a thick atmosphere, or live 
upon an extensive plain. The proper nur- 
sery of genius, learning, industry and the li- 
beral arts, is a temperate climate, in a coun- 
try that is diversified by hills, enjoying a 
clear atmosphere. The reader will be pleas- 
ed to consider, whether there is any part of 
the old continent, in which these circumstan- 
ces occur, in so extensive a degree, as they do 
in America, at least in North-America. The 
Africans in general are lethargised by con- 
stant heat, and they breathe in a very impure 
atmosphere, The most numerous nations in 
Asia, are chiefly in the same predicament. 
We discover at once, by the flourishing state 
of tropical fruits, and various delicate and 
tender plants, between the parallels of 25 and 
40 degrees, in Asia and in Europe, that the 
heat in those regions is more intense and of 
longer continuance than it is in North-Ame- 
rica, between the same parallels of latitude, 



( 175 ) 



From the position of the lands, as they re- 
spect the ocean, and from the bearings and 
size of the mountains, it must follow, that a 
similar difference will ever prevail. After 
we have passed the forty-fifth degree of lati- 
tude, travelling to the northward, the dis- 
tance is not great, especially in Asia, before 
we arrive at a climate, in which genius is 
chilled by the, severity of winter's cold. 

The state of the atmosphere, in America, 
has seldom been compared with that upon 
the other continent, so as to determine on 
which of the continents it is generally most 
pure. The weight of the atmosphere in 
different places has been measured by the 
barometer, but the relative clearness in dif- 
ferent countries is not so easily discovered. 
If memory is to be trusted, I would infer, 
that the difference is in favour of America. 
That fine blue sky, which we observe, night 
after night, in the United States, adorned 
with countless stars, is seldom equalled, in 
those parts of Europe which are most fre- 
quented by travellers. Whatever the case 
may be at present, it is certain, that in the 
progress of settlement, when the face of the 
country is cleared, the American atmosphere 



( ne } 

will become more pure, for it will be less 
charged with vegetable exhalations. That 
pure state of the atmosphere must have a 
considerable effect upon the temper and ge- 
nius of the inhabitants. 

Whatever the benefits may be, that arise 
from a clear atmosphere, the Americans 
will enjoy the benefits, in a high degree, 
that arise from a country diversified by hills 
and mountains. Our continent is divided, 
from one extremity to the other, by a vast 
ridge of mountains, the greatest in the world. 
North-America is subdivided, by other great 
and long ridges, that run nearly parallel to 
the Atlantic, and are habitable, in many pla- 
ces, to the very summit. By such moun- 
tains the state of the atmosphere is improv- 
ed ; to them we shall be indebted, in the 
warm seasons of the year, for refreshing 
breezes. Mountains of this kind are fa- 
vourable to health, strength, activity and 
enterprize. They are also friendly to study 
and mental acquirements, and they are 
among the best guardians of our liberty. 

The inhabitants of regions, that are ex- 
tremely cold, are not very numerous on the 
other continent ; nor will they ever be nume- 



( H7 ) 



rous in America; for such countries neither 
produce food nor fuel in abundance. But 
it is probable that the small and scattered 
tribes, who may be congealed in the hyper- 
borean regions of America, will continue to 
be equally stupid and savage, with their bre- 
thren in the northern extremities of Eu- 
rope and Asia. 

If it shall be admitted that extreme heat 
produces debility and languor of body and 
mind ; that it is unfavourable to study, or 
any kind of diligent application; it fol- 
lows that America has much to expect, in 
preference to the other continent; because 
there is hardly any part of America in 
which extreme heat does, or ever will pre- 
vail. If genius, industry, erudition, and 
the liberal arts are begotten and nourished in 
a temperate climate and a pure atmosphere, 
America has much to expect; for the cli- 
mate will ever be temperate and the atmos- 
phere pure, through the greater part of the 
continent. 

While we are marking the circumstances 
of soil and climate that seem to be favour- 
able to genius and learning, it may be ex- 
pected that we should also consider the na- 

24 



( 178 ) 

tural effects of another blessing, which in 
all ages is known to have been the parent and 
nurse of learning — a high degree of civil 
liberty; for such the Americans enjoy who 
are citizens of the United States. If I 
could speak of our liberties as we speak of 
the climate and face of the country; if I 
could speak of their duration as we speak of 
things that are permanent in nature, I should 
venture with confidence to predict, that in 
the scale of science, the American states, in 
a few ages, would not shrink from a compa- 
rison with the Grecian republics, or any other 
people recorded in history. Not that our li- 
berties can be endangered, situated as we are, 
by external force. We know in what man- 
ner the Belgians and Helvetians, who were 
but a handful, defended themselves, when 
they conterided for liberty, against a power- 
ful enemy that lay upon their skirts. But 
we also recollect, for we have seen, in what 
manner those very people and others, alike 
free, have sacrificed their liberties. Faction 
reared her baneful head among them. A 
spirit of bitterness and detraction, jealousy 
and revenge, pervaded the nation. One or 
the other party, inflamed by seditious lead- 



( 179 ) 



ers, were induced to hate their fellow citi- 
zens with a deadly hatred. For the sake of 
destroying their political antagonists, they 
aided or encouraged a foreign enemy, by 
whom the whole nation was subjugated. 
There is an unfortunate similarity, among 
the vices of the human race, in every part 
of the world. 

The Americans will have one advantage 
over the inhabitants of the other continent, 
that does not depend on soil, climate, or the 
forms of civil government. They will en- 
joy a more general diffusion of knowledge, 
unless they degenerate greatly. There are 
few, very few of the labouring class in the 
United States, who have not been taught 
to read and write ; nor is it to be apprehend- 
ed that learning will be neglected in the new 
settlements that shall be formed ; for we 
know that families are easily supported in 
such places. 

There is, and ever will be, in America, a 
much greater similarity of form and com- 
plexion, among the human race, than is to 
be found upon the other continent. That 
similarity may produce a more friendly in- 
tercourse, and general communication of 



( 180 J 



sentiment. The soil of America, which 
seems to produce animals of equal strength 
and firmness, but less ferocity of disposition, 
than are produced on the other continent, 
may probably give existence to a race of men, 
less prone to destroy one another, and more 
desirous to improve the understanding and 
cultivate social virtues. 



NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS. 



A 



The following register of the winds is extracted from a 
long detail of meteorological observations made in Penn- 
sylvania, within two miles of the city of Philadelphia, 
The state of the barometer and thermometer was marked 
every morning between five and seven o'clock, and in the 
evening at three o'clock. The course of the wind was 
marked at the same time. In this extract no account is 
taken of the wind when it blew from the north or the 
south; nor is any account taken when it blew from the 
west and from the east in different parts of the same day, 
This register indicates the days in which the wind conti- 
nued westerly or easterly through the day. The original 
register for the year 1748 was imperfect, for it did not 
begin with the year: neither was the register complete for 
the year 1749; but it was complete from the first of Octo- 
ber, 1748, to the first of October, 1749, making a whole 
year, except for nine days after the 24th of November 



1748. 



1748. 



Westerly. Easterly, 
October 19 days 9 days 



1749, 



November 12 6 

December 20 5 

January 28 3 

February 23 1 

March 18 8 

April 16 7 

May 22 



June 9 4 

July 17 6 

August 16 12 

September 13 11 



69 



or nearly 3£ to 1. 



( 182 ) 



Westerly, Easterly. 
1767. January 18 days 11 days 



February 


Z Z 


4 


March 


15 


13 


April 


15 


12 


May 


15 


12 


June 


20 


5 


July 


19 


6 


August 


21 


4 


September 


18 


8 


October 


19 


10 


November 


18 


li 


December 


25 


5 



225 101 or nearly 2i to L 

Westerly. Easterly. 
1 7 72. January 1 2 days 1 4 days 



February 


21 


6 


March 


15 


12 


April 


19 


7 


May 


16 


8 


June 


17 


11 


July 


20 


4 


August 


16 


10 


September 


IS 


9 


October 


14 


10 


November 


17 


s 


December 


24 


6 



209 105 less than 2 to 1, 

From this register it appeal's that westerly winds do 
not prevail as much in the United States at present as 

:hev did sixty years aeo. 



( 183 ) 



A: St. Petersburgh, in Russia, according to the account 
lately delivered by Dr. Gutherie, to the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, the westerly winds, during the winter half 
year, or the six colder months, are to the easterly winds 
nearly as two to one. During the summer half year they 
are nearly as three to two; but their coldest winds, as Dr. 
Gutherie remarks, are to the southward of west. 

Winter half year at Si. Petersburgh. 
Westerly winds 1 13 days. 

Easterly 63 

Summer half year. 
Westerly winds 1 10 days. 

Easterly 84 
In the city of Utrecht, in the United Netherlands, the 
winds have been observed to blow as follows: 

North 42 days. South 33 days. 

North-west 33 South-east 26 

West 77 East 53 

South-west 5S North-east 43 

210 155 
Mr. Copland, a surgeon at Dumfries, in Scotland, ob- 
served the direction of the winds for seven years, and 
found them to be as follows, viz. 

Westerly 77 
Easterly 66 
Dr. Campbell, in Lancaster, England, in the course of 
seven years found the winds to be in this proportion : 
Westerly 216 
Easterly 149 
The direction of the winds was observed at Dover for 
three years, and they were. 

Westerly 521 
Easterlv 173 




( 184 } 

Such is the prevalence of westerly free winds above 
those which blow from the eastward. 

In the city of Edinburgh the winds were observed to 
blow as follows : 

Anno 1797. West 256 days. East 109 days. 
1798. West 250 East 115 

Trans. JR. S. Mdinb. 



B 

In the year 1774 the Governor of Virginia found it ne- 
cessary to undertake an expedition against the Shawanese 
and other Indians who had been very troublesome on the 
frontier. Col. Lewis, the commanding officer, with one 
thousand five hundred riflemen, encamped, about the first 
of October, on the south side of the Ohio, on a point of 
land that is formed by the junction of that river with the 
Great Kenhawa. In that position he waited for a rein- 
forcement from Pittsburgh. The Indians had been in- 
formed of Col. Lewis's march, and they resolved to give 
him battle before he entered their country. The celebrated 
chief, who was surnamed Cornstalk, collected eight or 
nine hundred gun men, or warriors, for this purpose, and 
marched in quest of the Virginians. Having discovered 
where they lay, he formed the bold resolution of crossing 
the Ohio by night, and attacking them in their camp. The 
river was deep, and it was at least half a mile broad ; but 
he passed his army, without boat or canoe, by the help of 
rafts made of logs, and approached within a mile of Col. 
Lewis's camp undiscovered. He chanced to fall in with 
two hunters from the camp at the dawn of day ; one of 
them he killed, but the other escaped and alarmed his 
sleeping companions. A party of choice men were im- 



( 185 ) 



mediately detached in quest of the Indians, whom they 
met in a short time. The onset was furious, but the Vir- 
ginians were forced to retreat, having lost a considerable 
number. The whole army was soon brought into action- 
They formed a line behind the trees, and the Indians did 
the same. The battle became general before sunrise, and 
continued with unabating vigour and firmness until it was 
dark. The Indians, who had suffered greatly in the action, 
retired under cover of the night, and recrossed the Ohio, 
taking with them all their wounded and most of their dead. 
In the course of the action many Indians gave unequivocal 
proofs of the most daring courage. The conduct of their 
chief was able and conspicuous. During the day his trc- 
menduous voice was heard through the lines, commanding 
or encouraging his troops. 

In the year 1781 a party of Indians committed some de- 
predations near Estille's station, on the south side of Ken- 
tucky river, and retreated. Captain Estille, a woodsman 
of distinguished bravery, raised a party of twenty-three 
active riflemen, and pursued the Indians. On the follow- 
ing day he came in sight of them as they were fording a 
river. They were equal to his party in number. One of 
his men, who was in advance, fired upon the Indians, and 
two of them, wounded by the same ball, fell into the 
water. The other Indians, who had crossed, betook them- 
selves to trees; but one of the wounded Indians called 
upon his companions with a loud voice, upon which they 
boldly recrossed the river, and offered battle. The action 
was supported with great firmness on both sides for more 
than an hour, when the Indians, perceiving that the white 
men did most execution in firing, charged with their to- 
mahawks. Estille was killed, and the survivors of his 
party were put to flight. All Estille's men except seven, 
were killed or wounded, and the Indians, who had suffered 
more than the white men, were incapable of pursuit, 

9^ 



( J 86 ) 



In the year 1790 Major Willis, a brave and experienced 
officer of the United States, was detached by General Har- 
mer, at the head of eighty-seven men, regular troops, to 
the Miami village, where he was to expect the arrival of 
two detachments of mijitia. The Major stationed his men 
on a piece of rising ground, in the midst of a large old 
field. He was discovered by a party of Indians, who imme- 
diately raised the war whoop, and advanced to the attack 
through the open ground, singing a war song. The action 
was decided in a short time. The Major was killed by the 
first fire, and five only of his party escaped. 

We could give other proofs without number of active 
courage, a quality the Indians are known to possess in a 
high degree, by those who are best acquainted with them. 

The Indians were never said to have been deficient in 
passive courage. There are cases in which they seem to 
have eclipsed the fortitude of Regulus. 

When the French from Canada, and their confederate 
Indians, invaded the country of the Five Nations, during 
the minority of the American colonies, an old Sachem of 
the Oneida Tribe was taken prisoner, for he scorned to 
fly. The Sachem endured with astonishing fortitude all 
the tortures to which his enemies exposed him. One of 
the Indians stabbed him with a knife; to whom he ob- 
served, « You had better make me die by fire, that those 
? French dogs may learn how to suffer like men. You In- 
Ci dians, their allies, you dogs of dogs, think of me when 
" you are in the like condition/ 5 Charlevoix. 

While the late General John Armstrong was destroying 
an Indian town, near the Ohio, the warriors betook them- 
selves to a block-house ; part of that house was set on fire, 
and the General called to the Indians to surrender and save 
their lives. Their chief replied, " You may burn the 
? house, we can eat fire." Thus they were burned, pre- 
ferring death to what they counted a reproach. 



( 187 > 



C 

When Harold Harfagre, in the ninth century, made 
himself master of all Norway, which had formerly been 
divided into many small kingdoms, the Norwegian nobility, 
many of them impatient of a superior, fled to Iceland, 
Shetland, and the Orkneys. Ingulf, a nobleman of some 
consideration, removed to Iceland in the year 879, with a 
small colony. That island was sufficiently known, for it 
had been visited by fishermen, or sea rovers, who, for two 
or three hundred years, had covered the Northern Ocean. 
He found a wooden cross on the south shore, and a thick 
forest of birch trees, but no inhabitants. 

In the year 982 Erick, the son of Torwald, whose father 
had fled from Norway, being himself obliged to flee from 
Iceland, settled a small colony in Greenland, which had 
lately been discovered. The name given to this cold re- 
gion was seductious, and the colony increased consider- 
ably, until the year 1 348, when a great proportion of the 
inhabitants were cut off by a pestilential disease. The 
present savage inhabitants of Greenland have a tradition 
concerning that colony, and retain a part of their lan- 
guage. 

In the year 1001, Biarm, the son of Heriol, a Norwe- 
gian Icelander, sailing for Greenland without a pilot, 
the wind blowing at north for some days, fell in with land 
to the westward that was flat and covered with trees, on 
which he did not land, for it did not answer the description 
of Greenland. After his return to Iceland, having de- 
scribed the flat country he had seen, Leif, the son of Erick, 
who had discovered Greenland, sailed in quest of the land 
Biarm had discovered. He soon reached the coast, and 
running along it some days, he found a river, which he 
entered. The river abounded in salmon, the air temperate, 



( 188 ) 



and the soil of the country good. Here he discovered 
native grapes; whence he named the country Vinland. 
The adventurers erected houses, and spent the winter 
among the natives, who were small inoffensive men. They 
had canoes only fit to hold a single person when he went 
a fishing. Some years after this discovery, Tonsin, a rich 
Icelander, with his wife, five other women, and sixty sai- 
lors, much cattle, provisions, and implements of husban- 
dry, formed a settlement in Vinland. The natives traded 
with them, bringing furs, sables, and small white skins. 
Tonsin returned home after three years, with a valuable 
cargo of furs and raisins. The fame of his riches induced 
other adventurers to visit the new colony, and the inter- 
course between that country and Greenland, Iceland, or 
Norway, seems to have continued for many years. 

In the year 1121 Eric, a Bishop of Greenland, visited 
the colony, probably with little success, and since that 
time the civilized inhabitants of Greenland being lost, 
those of Iceland greatly reduced, and the northern nations 
weakened by pestilence and internal feuds, all remem- 
brance of Vinland has been obliterated. It seems to have 
been the Labrador coast. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 
2 y orfcei Greenland Antiq. 

N. B. The small illiterate inhabitants of Vinland, Green- 
land, and Iceland, who were discovered there in the ninth 
or tenth century, had doubtless passed over from the old 
continent in the same manner that we have seen the Nor- 
wegians pass ; but the memory of that event is lost by the 
want of letters. 



( 139 ) 



I) 



There is much reason to believe that the aborigines 
have been long in possession of this country, and have 
been very numerous. We find the remains of military 
works or fortifications in every part, from the Gulf of 
Florida to Lake Ontario. Those forts have been strongest 
and most numerous where the soil was fertile; whence we 
infer that those people supported themselves chiefly by 
agriculture. That we may be enabled to form some esti- 
mate of the number of the former inhabitants, we shall 
take a short view of the forts they built upon the northern 
waters of the Ohio. Muskingum is the first considerable 
stream that enters the Ohio below the 40th degree of lati- 
tude, the next is Scioto, and the third is the Little Miami, 
There have been numerous and large forts upon the Mus- 
kingum. There is a chain of forts upon a western branch 
of that river, near two miles in length. The waters of 
the river Scioto have also sustained a crowded population. 
The town of Chillicothe is about sixty miles from the 
mouth of that river, and there are at least twenty fortifi- 
cations within fifteen miles of that town. Some of those 
forts include one hundred acres of ground. Upon the 
river Miami the forts are equally numerous. We seldom 
travel ten miles on the banks of that river, or through that 
country, in any direction, without seeing a fort, or passing 
near one. In a word, the whole face of that fertile coun- 
try is hacked and scarred with ancient fortifications, full as 
much as Flanders is hacked with modern ones. About 
nine miles from the mouth of the river there are two forts, 
on the opposite sides ; one of them is very irregular, the 
other is a perfect square. There is a large fort as we as- 
cend about twelve miles, upon a branch of this river, and 
another fort ten miles farther up that branch, This fort, 



[ 190 ) 



which includes ninety acres of ground, is formed with 
much labour and considerable art, regard being had to the 
inequalities of the ground. The walls are from ten to 
fifteen feet high at present, and they measure thirty-three 
feet across. As much of the original wall has yielded to 
the inroads of time, it is presumed that the walls have 
been twenty feet thick at bottom, ten feet at top, and fif- 
teen feet high. The whole length of the wall, with the 
batteries and other works, perhaps the citadel, is above 
six thousand yards. According to the dimensions stated, 
the works of that fortress contained above 150,000 cubic 
yards of clay, or so many loads for a horse and cart. Such 
a fort was not built without instruments of metal. There 
are forts, upon the same river, more than three times the 
size of this, but few of them so irregular, because they 
generally stand upon better ground. As the forts were 
commonly built upon an elevated plain, near a good spring, 
or the steep bank of a river, the natives secured a passage 
to the water by parallel walls, or by numerous batteries. 
Every fort had its tumulus or burying-ground, and some 
of those tumuli contain the bones of many thousands, men, 
women, and children, regularly deposited, but in different 
states of decay. The tumulus that belongs to a fortress in 
Chillicothe is composed of alternate strata of black mould 
and ashes, by which it would appear, that in some cases 
the natives burned their dead. There are some tumuli 
upon large plains at a considerable distance from any fort. 
These tumuli only contain the bones of grown persons, 
promiscuously heaped, and in a similar state of decay. 
They seem to mark the carnage of a field of battle. 

Some of the great tumuli, in that region, do not contain 
more than the bones of one person. Those tumuli have 
been the tombs of sachems or persons of distinction; for 
m every case the bones are attended by ornaments of brass, 
implements of war, and images or figures of doubtful im 



( 191 | 



port. It may be observed, that the same custom of burn- 
ing the illustrious dead prevailed among the Scythians, 
the supposed ancestors of our Indians, above three thou- 
sand years ago. The chief was buried, as we are told by 
Herodotus, with some of his most valuable effects, and 
over him was raised a vast mound of earth. We are also 
told, by Pallas and other modern travellers, that the coun- 
try of the Calmuch and Mongul Tartars, and those great 
deserts that lie between the Amur and the Irtesh, abound 
in monumental tumuli. The bones of the dead in some 
of those tumuli have been accompanied by jewels and or- 
naments of gold. But the greater number of those tu- 
muli, when opened, have disappointed the avarice of mo- 
dern plunderers; the Scythian antiquities they contain 
have little intrinsic value. It is known that tumuli of this 
4dnd were found by the Spaniards in Mexico, who robbed 
them with the same avidity as they robbed the living. 

From the number and size of those western forts, we 
infer that the inhabitants of that region were very numer- 
ous, and that they supported themselves by agriculture; 
for men who support themselves by wild game are never 
prepared to endure a siege ; nor was it ever known that 
men fortified a particular part of the earth who had no 
property in the soil. 

Although it cannot be questioned that the aborigines in 
those parts supported themselves by agriculture, we have 
not the means of determining what instruments of hus- 
bandry they used. As our ancestors did not find either 
horses or black cattle among them, it is not improbable 
that they had subjugated the buffalo. It may be observed 
that the outer wall of a fort is, in some cases, surrounded 
by a ditch ; but we never find the remains of a ditch oppo- 
site to the gates. From this circumstance it is at least 
probable that quadrupeds entered the gates. It is not al- 
leged that the aborigines ever had the use of iron, but 



( 192 } 



they certainly had the use of copper. Those forts are 
doubtless of great antiquity. Certain utensils of the ori- 
ginal inhabitants are found within the forts, four or five 
feet below the present surface of the ground. Many cen- 
turies are required to form such increase of soil from the 
annual decomposition of vegetables. 

What has become of that great and numerous nation by 
whom those forts were built? We can discover but one 
solution of this question. They were visited by the demon 
of discord, and destroyed one another by civil wars, deadly- 
revenge, and unceasing hostilities. From the position and 
number of the forts it appears that the natives were de- 
fending themselves from a social, not a foreign enemy. 
Every part of the country was defending itself from every 
other part: even in the broken and barren parts of the 
country we find small forts. When we turn our eyes to 
some parts of Europe, and observe the numerous castles 
that were built during the prevalence of feudal misrule, 
when every little Baron waged war against his neighbour- 
ing Baron, we find the counterpart of Indian forts. The 
beginnings were nearly alike, but, happily for Europe, 
the issue was different; the regal power absorbing the 
baronial claims. When the Indians had nearly destroyed 
one another, the forts were deserted, and the survivors, 
few in number, supporting themselves by hunting, lost the 
arts, and became, what we found them, perfect savages. 

That the reader may form some idea of the manner in 
which the natives defended themselves, I have annexed 
drawings of three forts that were built upon the waters of 
the Little Miami. The dark lines show those parts that 
were made of earth. But the fortress could not be entirely 
composed of clay. The length of the batteries by which 
the gates were defended, and their distance from the line 
of the wall, indicates the need of some additional means 
of defending the port; that addition was certainly com- 



( 193 ) 



posed of wood. There must have been a line of palisades, 
extending to the wall, from the flank of the battery. The 
garrison and inhabitants passed through wickets in the 
palisades. The line of palisades is marked by dots. A 
gate, composed of wood, in a direct line with the earthen 
well, could not have been a safe defence; because the 
assailants, by advancing a pile of fagots, might have con- 
sumed it; but the line of palisades within the walls could 
not have been approached by fagots and fire. Whenever 
the gate opened upon a steep bank, a battery within was 
not required. In some forts there are parallel walls, the 
use of which is very uncertain. 

FORT No. 1. 
The walls of this fort enclose above 100 acres of gromui 
B A branch of the Miami river. 
a This wall, with the gate, is about 2100 feet long. 
b A valley 

c A spring and covered way. 
d Low ground. 

. FORTS No. 2 and 3. 

e This square fort encloses 60 acres, and stands on high 

ground. 
f The river hill. 
g The river bottom. 
h A redoubt, enclosing about five acres, 
k A round hill. 
m A steep bank, 50 feet high. 

n Between this fort and the several springs there is a 

steep bank and two covered ways. 
R Little Miami river, 



2$ 



( 199 3 



Some writers, as it is known, have advanced an opinion 
that the ancient walls in the western country were not 
intended for military defence. We are not surprised at 
such opinions, for there are few allegations that have not 
been disputed. A late respectable writer has ventured an 
opinion, that tides are not caused, as had been alleged, 
by the influence of the moon, but by the diurnal meltings 
of ice and snow in the northern regions. In answer to 
every opinion respecting the use of those walls, I shall 
only give a short account of an old Indian wall near the 
river Miami, of which a friend has lately sent me a cor- 
rect survey. From the situation and construction of that 
wall it must have been a military fortress, or the builders 
of it had strange heads. The wall encloses one hundred 
acres of ground ; and its situation is such, that it cannot 
be approached without great difficulty, except by a neck 
of level land, about twenty-five chains wide. It has the 
river Miami on the west, whose bank is steep and high; 
and it has a small river on the north, and another on the 
south. The bank of each rivulet is one hundred and 
twenty-six feet high. These small rivers form a narrow 
isthmus, a little to the eastward of the fortress. On the 
west, the north, and the south, where the access was 
made difficult, by the steep banks of the large and of the 
smaller rivers, the wall at present seldom measures above 
eight or nine feet high; but to the eastward, across the 
level isthmus, the wall now measures nineteen feet and 
a half in height, and it is seventy-two feet broad at the 
bottom. There are two tumuli to the eastward, at four 
hundred yards distance, and an artificial road leading to 
them. That such a wall was made for military defence 
can hardly be disputed. The prodigious strength of the 
eastern wall, when compared with the other walls that 
were defended by the steep banks of a river, seem to re- 
move every shadow of doubt on this subject, 



THE END, 




s 0 1 



0 021 179 315 6 



